Beloved Blood Be Spent
by Joneleth Proficticus
Summary: A vengeful mercenary learns the value of honor, and the cost of integrity. Updated Feb 1st 2005. PG for language and drug use.
1. The Choosing of Sides

The following is a lengthy work in process. Additional chapters will be loaded as I proofread them. Take the time to review and/or email me with comments. Technical criticism is welcome as I no longer have any of my canon sourcebooks. Chapter 2 is the unit roster (accurate to pre-operation) to help people sort out the various characters, since I focus so much on Vance. I hope you enjoy this work. - JSP

**[INTRODUCTION]**

Ripples formed around the edges of the pool. Again. Again. They were increasing in frequency now. Gregor could feel the vibrations... thud.... Thud.... Thud.... THUD.... Now he could hear it. A slamming, crunching sound, coupled with slight squeaks as brambles and green trees brushed against metal. Leaves were swept away with a snakelike hissing sound, and drawing nearer. Crouched under the piece of twisted metal, and waist deep in icy cold water filling the depression under the refuse, Gregor waited... motionless. He was out of options, and dozens of men and women were depending on him.

The cacophonous noise drew to an abrupt halt. The whirring of servomotors and the screaming of metal joints moving broke the silence abruptly. Gregor bent at the waist to look at his opponent. Most mechs looked vaguely humanoid, but this one did not. The reverse knee joints and the hands, which were replaced with paired barrels of some kind of heavy caliber laser, gave it an inhuman, predatory look, and not the look of a human opponent. Massive missile racks on either side of the crest dwarfed the main torso, giving the 'mech a hunched posture that could only be described as burdened. A Vulture. Clan technology. It scanned left to right, doing a thorough sensor reading. Suddenly the mech swiveled its torso and pointed its left arm directly at the chunk of debris Gregor was using as cover. 

He didn't even think - he just dove. The explosion just behind him propelled him forward as his hiding spot instantly became a mass of molten metal and vaporized earth. He slid down a shallow ravine, out of control, slamming into small rocks and trees. The mud was thick on his body by the time he came to a stop far from his original location. He checked himself and found only small fragmentary wounds. He had been lucky - and quick. Luckily he still had his launcher, somehow he had managed to hold onto it through his fall. He flicked the safety off and picked himself up. 

The slamming of the mech's feet alerted him to its arrival. The mech executed a leap over the hill and into the middle of the ravine. The impact resounded crisply and made Gregor's heart jump. He heard the servomotors whine as the mech aligned itself and resumed the search. He knew that he needed to take the offensive, put the mech on the run - make it play his game. But he couldn't just step out, the mech would fry him. He needed a diversion. Every second brought the angry giant closer to his location. 

From behind his tree, he drew out a flash grenade, pulled the pin, and let fly. The flash might override the sensors on the mech and the pilot's brain via the neurohelmet. Hopefully the pilot had the viewfinder at maximum intensity as well to better detect him and would be stunned. He counted... one, two, WHAM! Shielding his eyes from the flash, he rounded the corner and shouldered his launcher. The mech was staggering to the side, stunned. _He must not have had anti-infantry training_, thought Gregor, smiling wickedly. Aiming high, at the missile racks, he squeezed off a round and felt the reassuring blast of hot air wash over his neck and back as the munition ignited and streaked towards the mech. 

The inferno round shattered just before striking the mech, splattering the burning gel on the left torso missile rack. The napalm clung to the mech like a fiery demonic parasite. Gregor knelt to chamber his last round. The mech staggered under the intense heat, then suddenly bore down on him. He saw the missile rack door fly open, twenty rockets were poised to rain death down on him. He leapt sideways and cartwheeled behind a tree, hitting the ground running. The missiles barked behind him, slamming into the ground and rending foliage. Waves of heat washed over him, fragments dug into his armor and flesh, yet he ran on till the onslaught ceased, diving for cover behind an earthen mound. Gregor drew a breath from behind the clump of earth and forced himself to think. The pilot must be risking heat problems. The laser barrage on his hiding spot, the launches, and the burning napalm should have been enough for immediate reactor shutdown. This pilot was vulnerable, and the cockpit was the way to do it. 

"You're gonna fry pal." said Gregor as he suddenly stood up, aimed his launcher, and depressed the trigger. He aimed for the cockpit, but the mech twisted sideways while moving towards him and the round struck right, onto the missile rack that had closed just moments before. The gel splattered all over the right side, turning the 'mech into a moving pyre. Trees near it burst into flames as it drew near, waves of heat washing over the clearing, leaves curling and smoldering... yet it came on. Pulses of laser light impacted a scant meter from Gregor as he dodged left, vaporizing rock and clay and flora. Shrapnel blew Gregor backwards, shredding his armor and clothing and knocking the launcher from his hands. He slammed headfirst into a tree and became wedged between the double trunk. He could taste blood, feel his ribs crackle, he knew he had serious wounds. He had lost, but he forced himself to painfully draw his sidearm with his free hand. The mech had come near him, towering over him, mocking him. Gregor fired, again and again glancing rounds off of the cockpit transparisteel. Click. Empty. He had lost. 

The mech lowered its arms, static energy crackled in the moist jungle air as arm mounted lasers rained death down on him. A funeral was not given, or needed, for all that remained was ashes.   
______________________________________________________________________________

Redon turned his Vulture southward, sweat pouring off his forehead, stinging his eyes. The temperature in the cockpit was unbearable. The gel burned with a ferocious intensity. The heat rose slowly. Redon found his breath coming in short gasps. The air was too hot to breathe and not fresh at all. Each inhale felt like breathing fire. But it didn't matter. He had killed the sapper hadn't he? The man had put up a good fight too... and Redon so loved a good fight. He gasped and choked. He had to get air, cool air. He reached for the release on the cockpit seal and swore loudly as his hand hissed, severely burned. Blisters had already formed and bloody fluid trickled down to his fingertips. The gel would go out soon. He just needed to hold out. If his mech had hand actuators he could've smothered the gel with mud... but he had wanted more firepower. A serious error, and one he would correct in the future... ______________________________________________________________________________

But there would be no future for Redon. A split second later, the gel on the left torso, ironically nearing the end of its burn cycle, finally had an effect. The number eight missile detonation circuit melted shut, and the missile detonated, igniting the entire rack and ammunition storage bin, blowing the left torso free and blasting fragments into the fusion core and surrounding forest. The breach of the core caused a full meltdown as plasma held in containment suddenly had an escape, blowing the entire mech and clearing into a cloud of burning vapor and metal, the shockwave flattening trees in a large radius and leaving a permanent scar on the planet to mark the passing of the mechwarrior.


	2. Dark Grenadiers Unit Roster

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Dark Grenadiers Unit Roster

AFFC Combat Readiness Report

18 March 3061

Updated 2 April 3061

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Unit financier: Baron David Grenadine

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Naval Support: 1 Union Class Dropship, _Dauntless _ **Captain:** Alvaria Siampa

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Alpha Lance: Command LanceMechRating

Colonel David "Grenadier" Grenadine_Warhammer_Elite

Leftenant Sarasvati "Silencer" Rinaldi_Phoenix Hawk_Veteran

Corporal Terrance "Vigilante" Morgan_Shadow Hawk_Regular

Corporal Kellie "Attila" Orion_Thunderbolt_Green

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Bravo Lance: Strike Lance

Leftenant Vance "Eltanin" Strovski_Dragon_Regular

Private Zanshin_Hatchetman_Regular

Private Sarita "Solaria" Astratamos_Griffin_Green

Private Cadence _Raven_Green

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Echo Lance: Fire Support

Leftenant Paula "Huntress" Jalastar_Catapult_Elite

Private Diane "Flowergirl" Lawson_Dispossessed_Regular

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Eagle Lance: Aerotech Lance

Leftenant Kith "Dreadnought" Sivar_Customized Fighter_Elite

Leftenant Alicia "Peregrine" Breckinridge_Lucifer_Veteran

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Tech Support: Chief Tech: Johann Burg

**Alpha Techs:** Lisa Anderson, Sumato Yamati, Lonn MacDougal

**Bravo Techs:** Zapata Brothers, Paco and Enrique, Rosa Vinguard

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Recon Support: Ace Scout Karato Shosunuki_Cycle, Rotorcraft_

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Combat Readiness Report

Personnel Dossiers

Dark Grenadiers, AFFC

March 12th, 3061

Subject:David Grenadine

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Mech:Warhammer **Kills:**12

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Deployment:Alpha Lance (Command)** Rank:**Colonel

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Title:Baron

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Callsign:Grenadier

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Age:44**Weight:**89kg**Height:**180cm

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Homeworld:Hot Springs

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Specialties:Mech Tactics, Administration

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Background:Inherited landholdings, assembled the Dark Grenadiers as a defense force for the continent and went merc. 4 major combat actions in career.****

Quote: "This outta be a lot of fun…"

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Subject:Sarasvati Rinaldi

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Mech:Phoenix Hawk**Kills:**8

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Deployment:Alpha Lance (Command)** Rank:**Leftenant

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Callsign:Silencer

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Age:25**Weight:**52kg**Height:**160cm

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Homeworld:The Rock

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Specialties:Recon, Tactics, Mech Dueling, Gunnery

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Background:Born in periphery, orphaned at age 12 during clan invasion, stowed to Solaris and became a mech gladiator by 3059, merc with the DGs in 3060. Lost lance command 3061.

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Quote:"It's all about speed and guts."

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Subject:Terrance Morgan

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Mech:Shadow Hawk**Kills:**4

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Deployment:Alpha Lance (Command)** Rank:**Corporal

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Callsign:Vigilante

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Age:40**Weight:**104kg**Height:**192cm

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Homeworld:Sian

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Specialties:Athletics, Support Weapons, Autocannons

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Background:Academy trained. Fought raiders on the Capellan rim as a garrison mechwarrior, left Liao 3060 and joined the Grenadiers. 

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Quote:"What's the matter? Can't you do better than that?"

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Subject:Kellie Orion

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Mech:Thunderbolt**Kills:**3

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Deployment:Alpha Lance (Command)** Rank:**Private

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Callsign:Attila

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Age:23**Weight:**58kg**Height:**173cm

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Homeworld:Coventry

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Specialties:Protocol, Liasing

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Background:Slated to inherit family landholdings on Coventry, but out to see the galaxy before she has to take on the responsibility. Well connected in the Steiner court. 

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Quote:"Who's buying for me today?"

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Subject:Alvaria Siampa 

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Ship:Union-class**Kills:**14

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Deployment:Poseidon Lance (Naval)** Rank:**Captain

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Callsign:Dauntless

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Age:37**Weight:**64kg**Height:**170cm

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Homeworld:Star's End

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Specialties:Starship operation and repair

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Background:Captured the Poseidon from Belt Pirates under unknown circumstances and fled the area. Has worked as a mech transport captain for many years and is an expert gunner. 

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Quote:"Yes, I did that an hour ago."

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Subject:Paula Jalastar

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Mech:Catapult**Kills:**9

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Deployment:Echo Lance (Fire Support)** Rank:**Leftenant

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Callsign:Vigilante

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Age:30**Weight:**70kg**Height:**180cm

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Homeworld:Skye

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Specialties:Fire Support, Tactics, Command

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Background:Has more than 10 years of combat experience, against Marik, Kurita, and FC forces. Expert in guided and semi-guided missile weapons. 

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Quote:"Give me a target, I'll give you a kill."

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Subject:Kurato Shosunuki

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Vehicle:Cycle, VTOL**Kills:**0

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Deployment:Recon Element** Rank:**Scout

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Callsign:Sensuikan

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Age:32**Weight:**69kg**Height:**159cm

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Homeworld:Satalice

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Specialties:Recon, tracking, covert ops, rotorcraft, cycles

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Background:Has worked for several intelligence agencies and brought down yakuza in the Draconis Combine. Fled the area as a result and is laying low. Other details unknown. 

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Quote:"It is very unwise to proceed so openly."

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Subject:Diane Lawson

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Mech:dispossessed**Kills:**1

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Deployment:Echo Lance (Fire Support)** Rank:**Private

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Callsign:Flowergirl

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Age:25**Weight:**65kg**Height:**170cm

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Homeworld:Hesperus

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Specialties:Fire support, mech repair

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Background:Ambushed and dispossessed in first engagement in 3061. Seeking a new mech but still with the Grenadiers.

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Quote:"I guess you're right."

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Subject:Johann Burg

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Deployment:Support**Rank:**Chief Tech

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Age:57**Weight:**67kg**Height:**173cm

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Homeworld:Hot Springs

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Specialties:Repair, engineering, mechanicals, and practical jokes

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Background:Met David Grenadine after fixing his car on the road in under five minutes. Has worked for David for 24 years and draws a hefty salary. 

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Quote:"Sure I could fix it. But first I want to see you grovel at my feet."

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Subject:Kith Sivar

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Mech:Customized LAM**Kills:**14 mech, 27 aerospace

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Deployment:Eagle Lance (Aerotech)** Rank:**Leftenant

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Callsign:Dreadnaught

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Age:32**Weight:**95kg**Height:**184cm

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Homeworld:Oberon

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Specialties:Aerospace, naval, and mech piloting and gunnery

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Background:Has served in 3 different mercenary units, scoring kills both on the ground and in the air. Refuses to divulge details of his past but owns decidedly suspect clan technology. 

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Quote:"I will hunt them down. I will not fail."

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Subject:Alicia Breckinridge

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Aerotech:Lucifer**Kills:**10

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Deployment:Eagle Lance (Aerotech)** Rank:**Leftenant

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Callsign:Peregrine

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Age:28**Weight:**57kg**Height:**158cm

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Homeworld:Arc Royal

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Specialties:Aerospace dueling, strafing, atmospheric combat

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Background:A superb pilot living in the shadow of Kith, Alicia is a top notch pilot in her own right. She can hold her own against Kith in the simulators and has a rather dark sense of humor.

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Quote:"Oh I'm soooooo sorry I have to see you die a screaming, flaming death today."

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Subject:Ralph Freeman

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Mech:Dispossessed**Kills:**0

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Deployment:Unassigned** Rank:**Private

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Callsign:Hamster

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Age:23**Weight:**80kg**Height:**172cm

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Homeworld:Outreach

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Specialties:Mech combat, edged weapons

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Background:Fresh out of the academy, Ralph was wounded and dispossessed by a raider LAM and is currently recovering and not on the active duty roster. 

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Quote:"Oh great. More applesauce. Can I get some real food in here? Anybody?"

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Subject:Sarita Astratamos

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Mech:Griffin**Kills:**0

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Deployment:Bravo Lance (Striker)** Rank:**Private

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Callsign:Solaria

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Age:23**Weight:**50kg**Height:**150cm

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Homeworld:Unknown

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Specialties:Street smarts, stealth, support, urban operations

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Background:Sarita is slight of stature and excellent at evading people and patrols. Prefers hit and fade and guerilla tactics reminiscent of her gang warfare days. 

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Quote:"I say we shoot them in the back of the head. Twice."

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Subject:Zanshin (full name unknown)

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Mech:Hatchetman**Kills:**3

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Deployment:Bravo Lance (Striker)** Rank:**Private

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Callsign:Zanshin

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Age:28**Weight:**122kg**Height:**206cm

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Homeworld:Luthien

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Specialties:Mech dueling, firearms, heavy weapons, martial arts

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Background:Possibly the biggest Kuritan in history. He aims for decisive, pitched battles, and relies on overwhelming violence to shock his foes. 

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Quote:"I shall meet yang with yang, flowing like water is for amoebas."

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Subject:Cadence (full name unknown)

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Mech:Raven**Kills:**0

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Deployment:Bravo Lance (Striker)** Rank:**Private

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Callsign:Cadence

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Age:23**Weight:**70kg**Height:**181cm

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Homeworld:Skye

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Specialties:Tinkering, communication, programming

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Background:Technology specialist. Cadence is skilled at rigging repairs, tweaking systems, and is a master coder. His Raven bristles with customized electronics and programs. 

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Quote:"I'll just mask-bounce a spoofed signal off a ComSat or two. It's trivial."

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Subject:Vance Strovski

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Mech:Modified Dragon**Kills:**0

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Deployment:Bravo Lance (Striker)** Rank:**Leftenant

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Callsign:Eltanin

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Age:25**Weight:**80kg**Height:**180cm

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Homeworld:Hot Springs

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Specialties:Mech tactics, strategy, leadership, martial arts

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Background:Vance is a military prodigy who has studied the great tacticians of history religiously. His academy scores broke records in these areas, although his gunnery is mediocre.

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Quote:"Battles are won or lost well before the first shot is fired."

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	3. Advance of the King's Pawn

**[CHAPTER 1: "Advance of the King's Pawn" Outreach: Col. Grenadine's Office, April, 3061]**

"Alright Leftenant Strovski, you're in. I'm impressed with your record and skills. But you're gonna have a rookie team here, my whole Bravo lance was ripped to shreds in our last battle," said Colonel Grenadine, a tall grizzled veteran of a man in his mid-fifties.

"It's not a problem sir. I'd actually prefer not to have to work with people who spend their time telling me how the last person did it," I replied. Colonel Grenadine was going to be a good commander, I could tell. He was all bite and no bark, to invert the saying, and that I liked. 

"My last commander, Sarasvati, is still with me; she survived and blames herself for the loss of Bravo. Try to be sensitive to her since she's my best," he asked. I took another drag on my cigarette and nodded. Really though, the last thing I wanted was to pander to some emotionally needy mechprincess.

I stayed in the mechwarrior's lounge poring over the command documents for Bravo. Finally it was time. As I walked to the towering dropship I couldn't help but feel like this was too much, too fast. I wasn't that long out of the academy and a full lance command was a big step_. Hopefully I won't be saddled with some pathetic daisies riding Urbanmechs_ I mused. I ground my cigarette into the tarmac and ascended the ramp, my duffel slung over my shoulder. 

_Ah, my pride and joy_. Already secure in the mech bay, my Dragon stood tall and proud. It had been my brother's once. A particle projection cannon, a missile rack, and a cluster of lasers made it a versatile mech. Fire support, strike missions, escort, and command. It was a 60-ton behemoth that dealt swift death to all who opposed it. It had been heavily modified by Gregor and was full of surprises. I felt a pang of bitterness and rage. _Gregor_. We had played at mechs together as children, taping sticks to our arms and boxes to our backs, imitating the giant war machines. Together we repelled the clan horde time and again in our fantasia. The clan war ended abruptly, too close to our home for comfort. We went to the academy and graduated during the uneasy peace that followed, Gregor 3 years before me, and the family mech fell to him. I never begrudged him that, he was better, after all. 

As I walked up to "Eltanin", the name of our Grand Dragon, I recalled the last day I had seen him, the day he shipped out for Eaton. He said it was a choice mission, babysitting some royals. But then the planet erupted in strife, and when an assassin came in, Gregor was cut off from Eltanin and had to face him on foot. They never found his body, but they found the dead mech. Somehow he had destroyed the mech, but at the cost of his own life. I didn't remember lighting up, but the cigarette in my mouth had smoldered down to ashes by the time I was awoken from my thoughts by a clap on the shoulder. A strong arm spun me nearly around and I looked up at a giant of a man. 

"Leftenant Strovski? Zanshin. Good to meet you, sir," intoned the man in a deep bass. I looked him up and down, at a loss for words. He was an Atlas. He looked Kuritan, and was carrying enough personal weaponry to flatten a city block. He gave me a firm handshake, which I am sure could have been crushing, and I finally removed my cigarette and gathered my wits.

"Excellent. Where's your mech, Private?" I followed his hand to the form of a Hatchetman. The axe was heavily scored and I broke out into a wide grin. _A duelist_.

"This yours?" he asked, indicating Eltanin. I nodded and blew smoke. "That's not the normal weapons loadout is it?" I grinned evilly and shook my head, drawing an approving smile from the ogre beside me. "Hand actuators too," he continued, to which I nodded. As he examined the mech I looked him over. I noticed he had a tattoo like a yin-yang on his right arm, only it was yang on yang, no yin on it. As I pondered this the dropship intercom crackled to life.

"All personnel this is Captain Siampa. Begin immediate preparations for takeoff. All officers report to the situation room." I made my way through the ship to the SitRep lounge. I put out my cigarette, straightened my fatigues, and pushed through the door. 

The room was dimly lit, with a series of displays and a center table with interface consoles. Colonel Grenadine sat at the head, his gruff bearded face aged, but his eyes bright and alert. He motioned to an empty seat. I scanned the rest of the room as I made my way across the room, checking rank and caught sight of four Leftenants, two Corporals, a Captain, a Chief Tech and a Recon Leader. I received some inquisitive glances and one icy stare from a pretty young brunette sitting next to the Colonel. I took my seat and waited. Colonel Grenadine motioned for silence and pressed a button on his panel, snapping the main holo to life.

"Alright, let's get started. You've read the dossiers and planetary specs by now and know Eaton and its royals inside and out, so we'll skip the slag. Let's talk tactics. After our entry to the system, we'll set down on the salt flats north of Koch city. Eagle lance will have escort duty while Alvaria brings us down." As he said this, he motioned first to a dark, brooding man and a blonde sitting next to him, both Leftenants, and then at a Captain, presumably Alvaria, who looked like she was all business. 

"We will immediately deploy Bravo and Echo lances to sweep the LZ of hostiles. We've brought on some new muscle to bring Bravo lance back online. Leftenant Strovski has a good record and solid recommendations and he'll be leading Bravo in this op, and perhaps for a while longer," continued the Colonel. At this he motioned to me and I met the many smiles, frowns, and stares with a smile and a nod. The taller Corporal, "T. Morgan", interrupted the Colonel suddenly.

"Sir, I intends no disrespect, but last time we put a rookie command on top of rookie pilots in Bravo we lost three mechs. Eagle covered it, but we can't afford that kind of loss again." I personally could have cared less what he thought, but it did torque me off. And if I was mad, the brunette next to the Colonel was positively livid. She tore into Morgan with a verbal frenzy that would've scared a lion. As she ranted, I checked her nameplate, S. Rinaldi. _A hundred C-bills says S. stands for Sarasvati_. 

"…maybe if you hadn't botched procedure and…" continued Leftenant Rinaldi when suddenly the Colonel cut in, his patience clearly at an end.

"Sara! Terrance! That's enough out of you two. What happened in March could have happened to anyone and a number of mistakes were made. I have confidence in Vance and his team, so fuse it. Anything to add, Leftenant Strovski?" asked the Colonel. 

There isn't much I hate more than being put on the spot. Clansman and Atlases that have me backed into a corner are about it. All eyes turned to me.

"Anything can happen in combat. I know Bravo's record." At this I glanced at Sarasvati, who met my eyes. "I also know that handling defeat well is better than handling victory poorly." Her glance softened and her eyes dropped. I traced my eyes to Morgan. "The true test of a warrior is when under duress. My team is ready." _Not a bad speech there Vance_. Approving murmurs ran around the group and Colonel Grenadine nodded. I snuck a look at Leftenant Rinaldi, but she wouldn't look at me. 

The rest of the mission briefing was simple. Touchdown, sweep the area, get the royals out and hide them in the backwater regions of the planet. Then play escort while we hunted down the loyalist rebels. But I was thinking about the incident that had crippled Bravo. Sarasvati had been commander then and the ambush had resulted in one dead and two wounded. No doubt it was tough for her to see that happen to her lance. Poor girl was too young for that. She seemed nice, and her brown eyes were deep and alive, she had long brown hair that fell just past her shoulders in ringlets and… Suddenly I realized I was staring at her, and she back at me. I snapped my eyes back to the holo and forced myself to concentrate for the remainder of the briefing. My face burned. _Idiot,_ I reprimanded myself. The briefing was soon over, and mercifully, she was the first one out. I started to pick up my things when the Colonel approached me. 

"Vance, the rest of Bravo team is in the mech simulator. I suggest you sit the launch there so you can get to know them. They're a diverse squad." 

"Affirmative, sir. I already met Zanshin. He's not a clan vat-job, is he?" I asked, to which he chuckled and shook his head. 

"No, he's a pure blood Kuritan and hates the clanners with every pound of muscle on him, and that's a lot. You'll find the others equally talented."

I made my way to the SimDeck and entered. Zanshin stood there, and I had to look twice because he was curling a prone woman with one arm. She was laughing and flailing her limbs, while another man was looking on, an amused grin on his face. Zanshin noticed me and unceremoniously tossed his human barbell to the floor, who landed with catlike grace. Her eyes flicked to my rank and nameplate and she came to attention. She was joined by the man behind her and then reluctantly by Zanshin.

"Private Astratamos? Private Cadence?" I asked and was met with a loud tandem.

"YES SIR. READY FOR ORDERS, SIR!" _I hate formality_. 

"At ease folks, were mercs, not the 10th Skye Rangers. I'm your new Leftenant." 

We shook hands and traded names and homeworlds. The woman, Sarita Astratamos was every bit the opposite of Zanshin, as the top of her head came roughly even with his elbows. She was tiny and delicate, but still wiry and strong. She had cropped and spiked jet black hair, a tanned complexion, and a tattoo that nearly covered her exposed arms and shoulders. Her dossier read that she had been in and out of street gangs as a youth, and I could see that she was tough as nails. She drove a Griffin, a good long-range fighter with a PPC and an LRM-20. Cadence, who, like Zanshin, either didn't have or didn't use his last name, was the kind of man who would have disappeared into a crowd. Medium height and build, but his grey eyes set him apart. He was a tech whiz, I soon discovered, and he nearly made my head spin telling me about the electronics gear he had on his Raven. 

"So why did you join this unit sir? I mean, it's not the best pay and you had the highest graduating scores I've seen in years." Sarita was bold, and to the point. 

"The loyalists on the planet Eaton killed my brother Gregor three weeks ago," I answered.

A silence fell over the boisterous group. I wasn't sure if they were sorry or wondering how they could get out of a unit with a commander out for blood. I didn't particularly feel like answering any questions and was relieved when Captain Alvaria Siampa got on the intercom.

"Begin final countdown, all personnel prepare for departure," crackled the speaker. We strapped into the simdeck launch couches hurriedly. The ship shuddered as we took to the skies. I got to work explaining our operation to my mechwarriors. They were eager and full of questions and before I knew it we were in space and unbuckling from our seats while discussing tactics. 

"I really prefer surprise ambushes and outmaneuvering the enemy before the confrontation sir, fighting at long range, double-teaming, and so forth." Sarita meched like a ganger really, I thought. Her callsign was "Solaria" and she preferred to be called that. Her street smarts would probably come in handy both on and off the battlefield. 

"Well, that's not for me," rumbled Zanshin. "I prefer a decisive strike and close combat dueling." Figures he would. Not a man for subtlety at all. I sensed the tension and broke it.

"Well, we'll be doing exactly that then. Solaria and I will draw their short range mechs towards us with missile and PPC barrages, into the range of Zanshin's hatchet." At this he smiled. "Cadence, I want you to get down to the bay and calibrate your Target Acquisition Gear to Echo Lance's Arrow-IV artillery system. You'll be the surprise coupe de grace. We'll call this play the Hammer. I've got a whole book of em for ya' to learn."

I had been formulating that strike plan ever since I saw their dossiers. You need to play off the strengths of each member, and I could see they agreed. We headed down to the bay and spent the next several hours preparing our mechs for the mission. Weapons had to be cleaned, loaded, calibrated, sensors checked, etc., etc. I was lying on a creeper and had my hands and face buried deep in Eltanin's left foot myomer bundle when a shadow fell over me.

"Thank you for what you said, Vance." I kicked my wheeled truck out a meter and looked up into the face of Leftenant Rinaldi. _Seems someone made a good first impression on the merc mechprincess_.

"No problem Leftenant, I reviewed the black box battle log, I know what happened." I rolled sideways to my feet and faced her. I removed my cigarette and watched her closely.

"Call me Sara, please. Come on, what do you really think about it, I can take it. Where did I go wrong on that one?" She looked insistent and vulnerable, and I found it alluring.

"Alright Sara, your primary mistake was not working closely enough with Echo Lance to provide fire support. That's a mistake I've addressed," I said as I motioned to Cadence across the bay talking to Leftenant Paula "Huntress" Jalastar. "But your primary success was getting your wounded out alive under enemy fire." She nodded and absorbed it. I looked to her mech. 

"That's a nice Hawk you have there. It suits you. Deadly grace and beauty." She looked up, her eyes shot fire and her face reddened. I could tell she wanted to hit me, but she turned and stormed off. _Too much I guess_. She called over her shoulder as I watched her form stomp off. 

"So hotshot, does your Dragon smoke too?" _Slag._ Well forget it, who can figure out women anyway? I heard giggling and glanced up at Solaria, who flashed me a thumbs-up from her Griffin's shoulder mounted missile rack. I smiled and shook my head in response. _Women_. 

The next few days were a flurry as I spent every available moment training in the simulators with my mechwarriors, learning their fighting styles, strengths and weaknesses. My original observations turned out to be accurate, as Zanshin always went straight for the direct attack and Solaria hung back and double-teamed targets with me, always in a support role. Cadence was the surprise though, as he was deft and nimble, appearing suddenly to deliver a strike or drop a NARC beacon on some unsuspecting fool and then disappearing just as suddenly back into the background clutter. He reminded me so much of my old fencing instructor that it was uncanny. A feint, a precision strike, then a rapid disengage. 

Finally the day arrived that we began our descent towards the planet Eaton. We were strapped into our mechs so we could deploy immediately and I was powered up and ready to go. The comm crackled. 

"This is Captain Siampa, Eagle lance we are 17 seconds from the atmosphere, you are cleared for launch and escort," announced Alvaria. Kith and Alicia's fighters in the bays weren't in our line of sight but we heard their launch and I followed their progress from the command computer. 

"This is Dreadnaught, I'm detecting a flight of heavies coming up to meet us. Peregine, take the Reaver." The aerotechs were loyalist rebels, and Kith and Alicia engaged them right on the fringe of space. It was hard to follow the dogfight amidst the twisted maze of missile contrails and armor debris, lasers cutting into and out of the furball. Kith "Dreadnaught" Sivar was an ace, slicing two of the aerotechs into pieces with his PPCs. Alicia "Peregrine" Breckinridge took one down and the cannons on the dropship got the last one in a spectacular fireball. Then we hit the atmosphere and it buffeted our ship roughly, while the fighter-escorts sliced through effortlessly seeking targets like hungry barracuda. 

"ETA on planet is forty seconds. Bravo and Echo lances prepare to deploy. We have confirmed contact of two lances of mechs in the immediate LZ, bearing 185 and 117," noted the Colonel. I keyed my mic and responded. 

"Copy that command, we have the targets identified. We will engage at navpoint epsilon." I logged the new navpoint into the command computer and set a navpoint for Echo Lance further back as well. The ship slowed and I felt regular gravity, and suddenly the shock of touchdown rattled the ship, scattering light equipment and tools about the mech bay. Our mech harnesses released and I was the first to step forward, guiding my massive war machine towards the opening mech bay door and it's reinforced ramp. 

"Alright Bravo, they ain't paying us by the hour, lets move out." I received affirmatives in triplicate as I walked down the still-moving ramp and leapt my mech to the cracked mud of the salt flat with a resounding crash. The desert sun burned down on Eltanin with an ominous red glow. This system's star was a deep red and the whole landscape seemed to be awash in blood. 

Paired bluish beams streaked past me and struck the dropship. The Poseidon's cannons barked in answer. I broke Eltanin into a run at an acute angle to the attackers: A pair of Uziels. My lance formed up behind me as I designated targets for them and broke into a wide grin_. Using Uziels at short range melee? These clowns didn't know PPCs from SRMs_. 

Solaria and I cut west as Zanshin drove straight in towards them. He seemed possessed of a sixth sense as he weaved and bobbed his mech, dodging the PPC blasts as the range decreased. Cadence's Raven danced out from behind a hill and planted a NARC beacon on the second Uziel, a clear homing signal for our rockets to follow. A roar at my side let me know Solaria had joined the fight, lofting in a full flight of LRMs to strike the rearward Uziel full in the chest. It reeled under the attack as I brought my weapons to bear. I heard the soft pleasing tone of a weapons lock in my right earpiece and salvoed off my LRM-15. Fifteen more rockets on top of Solaria's twenty peppered the rear Uziel in the chest. 

The air cracked and rent as Solaria and I fired our PPCs, striking the Uziel twice and severing its shoulder. It lagged behind its comrade, who hadn't noticed and drove mindlessly for Zanshin._ Always shoot the straggler first_, I thought, and grinned. Suddenly from the sky a hail of rockets engulfed the second Uziel, which disappeared in a cloud of smoke. I caught sight of Dreadnaught and Peregrine as they blasted by overhead at more than 1000 KPH, turning a tight barrel roll in tandem. 

"Nice assist Eagle, one mech down. Concentrate fire now Bravo." But my command was in vain, as Zanshin brought his mech the last few steps towards his quarry, firing bursts with his autocannon in distraction. The Uziel tried to back up to recharge its PPCs, but his fate was sealed. The Hatchetman reached far back and swung the axe with great rage, completely severing the head and cockpit from the hapless Uziel. The body collapsed to the ground and the pilot's ejection seat floated to earth on a parachute. The Colonel came on the comm and I noted his position to the south, the four Alpha mechs accompanying a convoy of light vehicles.

"Excellent work Bravo. We have a full lance inbound from the West. Take 'em. We'll get the royals out on these APCs. Keep them away from the dropship," he ordered.

"Roger that, Alpha Leader," I replied. "Bravo, head to nav epsilon. Cadence, engage your ECM and find a good spot to paint them for Huntress. Echo Lance stand by for target acquisition."

Cadence's Raven sped down the flats and ran behind some dunes. Solaria and I slowed to cruising speed as Zanshin moved ahead at flank speed. I checked the grid and saw Huntress's Catapult in position 700m to the North. My tac-grid came to life as the enemy mechs appeared on scope. I watched the rangefinder count down to 1000m and targeted the leader, a Locust that was closing fast. Solaria and I opened up with the LRMs. The Locust tried to weave but was mauled by the dozens of rocket hits and nearly lost its balance. Then we fired our PPCs, Solaria striking it in the leg and cutting it's knee cleanly from it's body, and my shot striking the dune just behind it, leaving a puddle of molten glass. The Locust pitched face forward and slammed into the ground. 

A brilliant red laser beam cut through the air and stitched a deep line in my right torso. I fought to keep the mech aligned. The second mech, a Wolfhound, was within maximum range of his weapon systems and the Centurion and Hunchback were not far behind him. Solaria and I fired again, and Zanshin who was closer opened up with his autocannon. The beams, rockets, and shells tossed the fragile Wolfhound around like a puppy in a hurricane and the fusion core imploded with a powerful shockwave, leaving a smoking blackened crater on the flats. Rockets and autocannon rounds from the Centurion's arm mounted Luxor gun and missile rack began striking Zanshin, who absorbed the heavy damage and jinked Northwest, heading for a dune. Luckily the Hunchback's massive gun was still out of range. Solaria continued to blast the Centurion who was intent on Zanshin as I checked the combat grid. Any moment now…there… within range.

"Cadence, drop the hammer." The miniscule Raven crested the hill and popped off a NARC beacon, which latched firmly onto the Centurion, then fired his TAG laser at the Hunchback. The Raven, with its small signature and ECM, was undetected. 

I heard a hollow, deep rumbling on my external mic and then a high pitched scream. Huntress had fired her Arrow-IV. The giant artillery missile cruised in, gaining speed and momentum as it sought the TAG laser reticle with the relentless abandon of a kamikaze bloodhound. The Hunchback realized his error but it was too late as the Arrow-IV missile struck him full in the chest with all the fury and might of a thundergod. The concussion knocked the mech flat on its back, smoke pouring from the gaping hole. The Centurion was thrown foreward, and Solaria and I launched a full flight of LRMs, now homing in directly on Cadence's NARC beacon. The impacts threw it backwards into the sand dune amidst the smoke and debris. 

Cadence's TAG flashed again, and Huntress fired another Arrow, the ominous unavoidable siren scream sounding a deathknell for the downed loyalists, who were struggling to rise. The Arrow struck directly between them, blowing their tattered mechs apart, and the massive mushroom clouds stretched lazily towards the crimson sky. 

"Good work team. Drinks are on me tonight. Alpha Leader, this is Leftenant Strovski, all hostiles neutralized here." I ran my tac-grid over to the palace and assessed the situation.

"Copy that Bravo Leader. We have the royals on board and are heading out now for the Poseidon. Estimated time of arrival, seven minutes." I nodded to myself then froze. I hadn't noticed it immediately, but the tac-grid was showing a lance closing on an intercept route just outside of their sensor range. _Scrap and double scrap_. I keyed the mic. 

"Colonel! I have four confirmed enemy contacts closing to intercept! Do you copy?" 

"Confirmed! Good work Bravo, pince them from the Northeast, come in on bearing two-one-niner." We were already moving at top speed. "I'll babysit the convoy, Alpha you are clear to engage, weapons free." I watched the grid as Sara's Phoenix Hawk, Terrence's Shadow Hawk, and Kellie Orion's Thunderbolt moved to engage. We would be last into the fray. Cadence's Raven was far ahead and already spotting with his NARC. Lasers criss-crossed the circling giants as they dueled and jockeyed for position. One was already down, three to go. 

Solaria and I fired at the mighty Atlas. It was the largest and most threatening mech around. Our rockets and PPCs deepened it's battle scars, but Atlases have thick hides. Then Sara's Phoenix Hawk soared through the air on her jump jets and smashed feet-first into the Atlas's chest and face, knocking the 100-ton behemoth onto it's back with a thunderous crash that shook the earth. Sara also fell to the ground beside the giant and struggled to rise. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Terrance and Kellie ripping a Crusader to pieces while it fired missiles at point-black range. Just then the enemy Crusader blew apart in a flash of blinding light as his ammo bins cooked off. 

"Get the Warhammer! He's broken free!" shouted Solaria as the last enemy mech closed in on our convoy of royals. Kellie, Solaria and Terrance pursued as I suddenly found myself face to face with the Atlas which was struggling to it's feet. My rockets shook the Atlas and blew pieces of armor and structure off the massive machine but it rose as steadily as a cyberzombie and lowered its weapons at Sara's fleeing Hawk. Laser energy poured forth, and Sara's mech was spun around, the powerful hit blowing her right arm off. The lasers then cut her hip joint free and she crashed to the ground with smoke, coolant, and oily fluid pouring from her machine. I interposed Eltanin between Sara and the Atlas. The machine towered over me with what seemed to be an annoyed expression as I stood between him and his downed quarry. I heard Sara groan painfully into her comm. He was twice my size, but damaged. He vented so much heat that the air shimmered between he and I. The furious, immolated demon and I stood still and silent for a moment as the desert wind spread the bitter, acrid smoke from our conflict into the sky. 

He twitched first, bringing his right arm to bear as his torso twisted left. My sensei at the academy who had taught me Kung-fu always told me to watch the shoulders for the telegraph of intent. I was ready and the old reflexes kicked in as I stepped inside of his arm and grabbed it with both of my own. His lasers discharged uselessly and brightly just meters from my cockpit transparisteel as I stepped in and planted my left foot solidly on his. I brought my rear leg up and delivered a thrust kick to his chest as the lasers continued to fire. I heard the wrenching wail of metal tearing and buckling. He fell away from me and as the grinding howl intensified I suddenly lurched backwards. With another resounding crash the Atlas had slammed to the ground. I still held his arm in my hands and his foot under mine. They had both been ripped free of the damaged monstrosity. I breathed a sigh of relief then gasped…He raised his left arm to fire at me, and out of nowhere Zanshin's hatchetman brought his hatchet down with full force onto the Atlas's cockpit, crushing it completely. 

"Sara? You alright?" I walked over to her downed mech and crouched to look. Suddenly horror overtook me as I realized the Atlas hadn't been firing uselessly with his right arm after all. The cockpit of Sara's mech was melted and scored. The comm was lifeless. 

I popped my cockpit seal and leapt to the ground heavily, feeling a pain in my ankle from the jump. Running to her cockpit I broke the seal and peered inside. It was a mess. Melted circuitry and consoles filled the air with a foul smell. I crawled in and found her strapped securely into her seat, her hair matted wet with blood and sweat and her eyes closed. I drew my vibroshiv and cut the restraints, freeing her body from the chair. I checked her pulse… barely there. Replacing my knife I gingerly lifted her form from the cockpit and brought her into the blood-red light of Eaton's star. 

"I guess… my mech… is the one that smokes…" she whispered. 

She held on tightly as I carried her back to my mech. Zanshin's mech crouched and offered a hand, which I stepped on and he lifted me to my cockpit. I set course for Poseidon.

We got the royals back to the ship and sent salvage teams out to recover the mechs and their parts. I handed my mech off to a tech and carried Sarasvati to the medical room. She was burned pretty badly in some places but I'd seen worse before. As I helped the doctor administer anesthetic and burn salve I was relieved to notice her beautiful face hadn't been scarred. Although she was missing most of her curls, I was just glad she was alive. She didn't say anything but kept her eyes on me the whole time. She didn't have to say thanks, because the look in her eyes was enough. 

The mission had started rough, but I felt relieved that it was going to get easier. That was my first mistake. I should have known better than to assume they really were the idiots they made themselves out to be. We all fell for their ruse, and the next four weeks we would learn the age old concept that war is waged, above all else, by deception… 


	4. Baiting the Epaulette's Mate

**[CHAPTER 2 – "Baiting the Epaulette's Mate": Eaton: Dropship Poseidon April, 3061]**

Standing in the medical wing wasn't pleasant. I hated the antiseptic smell, the gray atmosphere, the stink of blood. But I stayed because Sara was there, and the doc needed assistance anyway. She couldn't speak, probably because of the foul smoke she had breathed in while trapped in her cockpit and the doctor quickly had her on a respirator. It wasn't long before the tranquilizers kicked in and she fell into a deep sleep. She'd probably be out for the better part of a day. I pulled out my smokes and lit up, drawing a flurry of cursing from the doctor, who pushed me out of the medical room hastily and slammed the hatch behind him. I grinned and sat down in the corridor and let my mind wander for a few minutes. Every mission was a blur when you looked back on it, but for a moment or two, time moved slowly, as if to compensate or equalize, while I stared blankly at the wall. People stepped over me and I ignored them all, hearing only the beep of my medipack strapped to my thigh. I reached down and turned it off. They call it battle shock, as you come down off the adrenaline, stimulants, and steroids that your medipack injects into you as you fight. Not all mechwarriors wore them, but I was hooked on the slight edge they gave. The drawback was that it was obviously borderline addictive, and coming down after combat was always disorienting. Finally my head cleared and I forced myself up and about. I made my way to the washroom and looked in the mirror. _Great Ghost Regiment_. I looked like hell. Blood on my hands and arms, blood on my neck, blood on my cooling vest – HER blood - all mixed with a fine layer of dust and sweat. I looked around for some soap, then gave up and made my way to my quarters to clean up there. Suddenly it occurred to me that I had left my duffel and supplies down in the mech bay. 

I made my way down to the bay and navigated the chaos as I searched for my duffel. Union dropships have massive mech bays with plenty of room, but this one was as crowded as the streets of Luthien during the New Year celebration. The heavy equipment hauling in mechs and mech pieces littered the floor, the dozen-some techs and equipment operators scurrying about like worker bees. I noticed that all the mechs were in their gantries, sans Sara's Hawk, which was nowhere to be seen. The APCs were parked in the vehicle bays and… _what the hell?_ Dreadnaught's customized fighter was parked at the main entry hatch, and the burly fighterjock was refueling it and had a pile of munitions nearby for rearming. _How the hell had he landed it and gotten it up the ramp?_ That was impossible with terrain like this. The reddish-purple glint off the armor confirmed though, that it was indeed here. How he had landed was a mystery. I cast my eyes about looking for Alicia's Lucifer and there was no sign of it or her, but I did spot my duffel. 

Making my way amidst the rat-maze of components, I reached my duffel and shouldered it. Giving my mech a once-over on the way back, I was satisfied it was secured properly and looked over the rest of my lance. Cadence's Raven was clean and unscathed, as was Solaria's Griffin. Zanshin's Hatchetman was showing heavy damage and had yet to be looked at. I called a tech over, who reluctantly disconnected his music-headset to hear me. 

"When do you guys plan to work on the Hatchetman?" I asked.

"Should be done in a coupla hours there chico. Jes wait a little. My brother and I got a lots to pull in yet. You locogatos really scattered pieces all over tha place, man." I checked his coveralls for a tag and saw E. Zapata and recalled that the Bravo tech team was Paco and Enrique Zapata. 

"Alright. I'll just let you do your thing, Enrique. What's our salvage window? We dusting off soon?" I offered a cigarette which he accepted readily with a grin and lit up another myself. 

"Nah, it's gonna be at least three hours. Your job is done here man, we got this part of the mission covered. You better get your officin' butt up to the debriefing room soon man or they're gonna demote you and give me your job." _Scrap._ Enrique laughed at the good shock reaction he got out of me and I nodded back. _Well, I'll use Sara as my excuse for tardiness for the debriefing_.

I made my way into the sitrep room, drawing the glances of everyone present. Just my luck to happen upon a lull in conversation…The Colonel took one look at me and spoke right up.

"You get hit, Leftenant?" he asked as I realized I still hadn't cleaned up. _Story of my life._

"No sir, that's Sara's blood." His eyes widened. "She's in medical right now. It's not serious." The Colonel breathed a sigh of relief and I caught a sly grin, quickly covered by a hand, out of Solaria in the corner. She, Zanshin, and Cadence were sitting in the corner and I made my way to the empty seat nearest them. I shot her a steely stare but the little punk was avoiding eye contact and trying not to laugh. 

"Just to recap for you a bit Leftenant, we successfully extracted the royals and lost only one mech in the process, Sara's. Good news is that we have a lot of salvage. Peregine is in the air now watching for inbounds and we plan to move out in 2.5 hours. A total of 9 enemy mechs went down, with only the Warhammer escaping." 

The colonel and the others continued reporting the damages and salvages, but that sort of thing never really interests me. Then the discussion thankfully turned to the next phase, relocation to the backwoods of the planet and hiding from the loyalists, who had still battalion strength or better within operational range. Everyone in the room was pretty confident. These were green troops at best, if trained at all. Their gunnery accuracy was horrendous, they had no grasp of tactics, and they were scattered and unfocused. Right now, we had the advantage. 

"You all have time to do as you will until we set down again. Then I want you and your team out on patrol." The Colonel gestured to the recon element leader, K. Shosunuki, who gave a seated bow and said nothing. I hoped he knew what he was doing. I was glad the Colonel didn't try to assign Cadence's Raven to recon. I would have discouraged the idea since mechs leave pretty unmistakable tracks and even a small one such as a Raven can be easily followed. 

"The rest of you are to stay on standby for immediate deployment. Things could get hot at any time. But for now, dismissed." We rose and made our way out. I circled up my team. 

"Get yourself cleaned up and then meet me in the officer's lounge in fifteen minutes." They all nodded and quickly dispersed. I took the opportunity to finally head to my quarters and change out of my piloting gear. I replaced my bloodied cooling vest and shorts with my typical khaki fatigues, opting to leave my form-fitted flak-vest on underneath. Lightweight sneakers came off and I put on my combat boots and tactical jacket, and I decided to leave my medipak on. My instructors at the academy always told me to dress less combative and more dignified, as becoming an officer, but habit is habit. I finally scrubbed up and made my way to the officer's lounge, finding the three of them seated at the corner table. 

"What are we doing sir?" asked Zanshin as I walked into the lounge and motioned to wait as I approached the bar and got the bartender's attention. A few selections later I plopped down a wad of C-bills and made my way back to the table. The lounge was seriously decked out for a Union-class dropship. Nearly Overlord-class in its size and accommodations. A gaming area, a kitchen, a bar, good atmosphere, the speakers playing music that was probably playing on Solaris VII right now, and a gruff bartender who knew how to mix the music and the alcohol. It smelled of cigarette smoke and barbeque. Just the way I liked it. 

"Well, I said drinks are on me and I meant it." They all grinned and got comfortable. Zanshin propped his feet up on a nearby chair, Cadence relaxing and kicking his chair back on to two legs, and Solaria brightened.

"All right! I was afraid we were going to have to sit through another debriefing… You know, sir, before you showed up they were talking a lot about you in there." She said, in between glances to the bar. I raised an eyebrow and looked her in the eyes.

"Is that so. What did they say?" She looked back and forth at Cadence and Zanshin happily. 

"They really thought we did a good job. They were really shocked I think. I almost think they expected one or more of us to draw the ace on that one." Zanshin nodded and alternated glances between her and I.

"They were really impressed with our hammer play on that incoming lance," said the giant "They asked twice if you came up with that. Huntress seemed really pleased. They awarded Cadence two assists for that." Solaria, who seemed to be all excitement, broke in again.

"Yeah, and the locust was a kill for me and an assist for you, the Wolfhound the other way around, and they scored you a kill for the Atlas with an assist for Zanshin." Zanshin broke back in.

"But of course, the decapitation was all mine." He guffawed and we all laughed remembering the Uziel pilot backpedaling. Zanshin and Cadence were standing up reenacting the event in slow-motion as Solaria and I laughed uncontrollably when the bartender walked over with a tray of drinks and bottles and many plates of appetizers. I'm not sure what kind of meat it was, but it was spicy, very salty, and delicious. We each poured a drink and raised our glasses. 

"Here's to Bravo, and to completing our first mission." 

"and to dead loyalists," chimed in Cadence.

"and to rolling in piles of C-bills," smirked Zanshin. We all laughed and downed our drinks and I nearly coughed mine up. _What was this stuff? Myomer degreaser?_ Cadence did start coughing, and Zanshin looked like he was trying hard not to. Solaria was the only one unaffected it seemed. I quickly poured myself a glass of ale to wash it down and lit up. 

Time passes fast when you're having fun and we traded insights and stories back and forth as we picked the tray clean of food and drinks. At first we mostly just let the dung fly as we told stories from our rebellious academy and teen days. Cadence's stories usually were over our heads, some technical pranks he pulled, things he hardwired into people's mechs. Actually it sounded like borderline sabotage but he had us rolling in no time. Zanshin, although less amusing, commanded our attention by sheer charisma. As the alcohol got us talking a little more he recounted the year he had spent training in a shaolin temple in the Draconis Combine. He had studied martial arts his whole life and always had excelled at fighting. Champion of his prefecture on more than one occasion, he told the stories of his greatest fights and even told the ones he lost, and how one person who had beaten him had later become his best friend. 

Solaria laughed less and less as the evening wore on, and drank more and more. She didn't have much to say about her life before she attended the academy and I could only guess why. She spent much of her youth in gangs and probably was trying to forget some bitter memories. She was the youngest of us, although Cadence was only a year older, and also the youngest of her siblings as well. She was hitting that bottle of liquor pretty hard and beginning to get a glazed look in her eyes. She reached for the bottle again and I pulled it back. She pouted a little but nodded and we turned our eyes to Zanshin and Cadence, who were busy discussing the Ryoken, a clan omnimech. It was a medium mech with a good arsenal of lasers and considered to be a workhorse. 

It was at that time that Alpha lance entered, minus the colonel, and of course Sara, and a few of the infantry and recon troops as well. The tall and black Terrance "Vigilante" Morgan was in the lead, and he sat down at the main table and put his legs up on it and crossed his feet, snapping his fingers for service. He was clearly a solid athlete, his tank top showing his well-muscled physique. His dark eyes passed us over briefly and he may have scowled a bit. Right behind him was the almost-as-tall Kellie Orion, whose callsign I couldn't recall. She was a beautiful blonde bombshell and it was obvious why the five infantryman were following her. As we watched their entrance I caught her call out.

"Who's buying for me today?" she called out. The grunts shamelessly fell over one another trying to gain her favor. She seemed to love the attention. _Career flirt._ I made a mental note to avoid her and hoped that she and Sara weren't good friends. I turned from the ruckus and looked back at my mechwarriors. The guys were watching Kellie and Solaria was giving them a disgusted look because of it. She had snuck the bottle from me while I looked away and refilled her glass.

"Okay Solaria, you've had half that bottle already, come on pass it over. We're on call remember?" I teased. 

"Oh, don't worry about me. I can probably walk a straighter line than those two right now," she quipped as she pointed at the guys and capped the bottle. We were pretty much done with the food and drink, save the remnants of the one bottle, which I started to pocket. Just then Terrance clapped me on the shoulder from behind.

"Alright Vance, you gave 'em hell today. Nice work with that Atlas." 

He sat down next to me, drink in hand. I uncapped my bottle and motioned if he wanted some and he nodded so I topped his drink off. Kellie had walked over as well and flashed a disarming smile as she joined him.

"And that was soooo sweet of you to take Sara up to the medical room. You're a real romantic," she cooed. _Aw hell._ I expected Solaria to giggle and join in on the teasing, but instead crossed her arms and looked fiercely at Kellie. I replaced the bottle and replied.

"Thanks. Enjoy the drink," I said as I sought to deflect the conversation. "I'm lucky to have a good team and a good unit." 

"You're too humble. Come on, let's play some cards. We've all got cash to spare after that op," prodded Terrance. His eyes flashed a predatory glance over us. He seemed to revel in competition. Solaria spoke up first.

"Alright, I'm in." Cadence and Zanshin declined the offer. 

"I'm gonna get to work on my mech," said Cadence as he pushed his chair back and picked up his things.

"And I'm too drunk," rumbled Zanshin. We all laughed since there was no way the behemoth could be, considering his size and the portions of food he had eaten, which was easily half of what had been on the tray. 

"But I would be up for some arm-wrestling," he continued and grinned. No one responded and more than a few raised their eyebrows as if to say: 'you have got to be kidding me'. I was not a good card player and was about to opt out when the intercom sounded.

"All personnel prepare for departure. Leftenant Strovski report to the bridge," said the even voice of Captain Siampa.

"I guess that's my answer for you Terrance, have a good game." I stood up and felt a little dizzy, but made my way out with Zanshin and Cadence, who headed for the mech bay as I ascended the lift to the bridge. 

The doors slid open and I stepped onto the bridge. Captain Siampa was in the command chair with the Colonel standing nearby. Three bridge crewmembers were working the console panels and Alvaria was on the comm. 

"Roger that Dreadnaught, you are clear for launch. Peregine what is your fuel situation… alright we will rendezvous in seven minutes at navpoint zeta and you can perform an inflight docking then," I caught her say. I was wondering how Dreadnaught could launch with us on the ground, but I strode up to the officers and waited silently. 

"Ah, Leftenant. Good. I have something here for you." With that the Colonel drew a small envelope from his side pocket and handed it to me. He saw my puzzled reaction and explained. 

"Bonus pay for you and your lance for the kills. We pay bonus for each kill and assist. Split it up as you deem fit. There's also something else in there for you." I drew out a bronze star medallion, small and compact. 

"For recovering Sarasvati and probably saving her life I am giving you the Sarna star. We hope you stick with our unit past this mission since your skills and courage are exemplary," said the Colonel in a regal tone.

"Thank you sir," I stammered. The extra pay was unexpected, and quite generous. 185,000 in total. Quite a sizeable bonus. I honestly didn't care much about the medal, since, hey, I'm a mercenary, but it seemed to matter to the Colonel, so I treated the honor seriously.

As I looked over the envelope and cash a platoon leader came up and spoke with the Colonel, and although I couldn't hear the whispered conversation, I got the idea that it was regarding the prisoners we had taken and the results of some questioning. Both the Atlas pilot and the second Uziel pilot had been captured, poor saps. It seemed like the infantryman was asking for permission to use slightly more persuasive methods of extracting information. The hairs rose on the back of my neck.

I was soon dismissed and descended the lift with the infantryman, just behind the man, but lost in thought. I fiddled absent mindedly with my medipack as I thought about the progress of my mission. After a brief stop in my quarters, I made my way down the corridor to the medical wing to see how Sara was doing. As I passed the brig I heard a noise and suddenly got a feeling, my adrenaline rising and pulse racing. My medipack registered my alert state and injected me as I stopped. I turned abruptly on my heel and kicked the door open… 

The infantryman was there, as were the two pilots, and the situation was all wrong. Just as they turned to face me, I drew my sidearms from my tactical jacket's concealed pouches, flicking off the safeties with practiced ease, and sighted in my targets. Time seemed to drag as the one gun in the room not in my control tracked towards me as I threw myself backwards and pulled the triggers. 

Had there been a slow motion camera in the room, it would have seemed that the shots all went off simultaneously, except the last one, the reports sounding like one automatic burst. Blood sprayed into the air and onto the walls as my world suddenly went white, a deafening ringing in my ears. I lay there on my back, and painfully forced myself to roll onto my stomach, pulling myself towards the table. Where were my guns? I couldn't think straight as I crawled to the chair. I felt a shell casing under my right hand and clenched it tightly, feeling the heat of it burn my hand, but not caring. 

The staccato roar of the weapons drew the attention of all onboard the ship and within seconds a pair of armed guards had burst into the room. I was staggering to my feet when they ran through the open door and leveled their weapons at me. I resignedly slumped in the chair I was using to draw myself up and waited. In no time the Colonel and Alvaria came through the door, breathing heavily. 

"What the frag is going on in here Vance!" I tried to speak, but found I couldn't… so I motioned with my left hand that I wasn't breathing well. 

"Heard… a noise… came in… shot them…" I motioned at the pilots on the floor. Both had neat holes in their temple, and the floor was steadily pooling their blood under me. The infantryman was leaning back in his chair with his throat completely shot out, eyes staring blankly, his vest soaked in blood. One gun was in the corner of the room on the floor, and both of mine were at the feet of the first guard, who stooped to pick them up. 

"Must've been a ricochet…" I gasped, as I pointed at the infantryman. At this point the Colonel and Alvaria realized that I too had been shot. The slug was embedded into my flak vest, but hadn't broken the skin. 

"Rostov, get Vance to the medical wing and get him looked at. Now you know why you don't fire projectile weapons on a starship Leftenant," chided Alvaria. 

I shrugged, as if to say _do or die_, but couldn't make the words come out. The second guard, Rostov, came over to help me to the medical wing and I found I could walk pretty much unaided, but was glad for the help anyway. 

Turned out that the round had cracked two ribs, although there was no other damage. As I lay there in the medical wing I just tried to stay conscious. The doctor stripped off my vest and shirt, and then the pain really hit me. He hooked up an IV and tranquilizer as he inspected the wound. The pain faded and the world dimmed. 

I still clenched the casing tightly in my hand, and placed it in my pocket. When the doctor left the room finally I strained to reach my tactical jacket. I finally gave up and went to sleep regretting that I wasn't sitting in Sara's room watching her sleep instead of falling unconscious myself. 

I awoke some time later. I had slept through the liftoff and probably landing too, which means I had been out cold for quite some time. I shook my head and blinked my eyes to get oriented. The room was darker, with only some smaller lights on the counter still on. I reached over to my jacket, again straining for a cigarette, and finally got to them. I noticed my pistols were there with my jacket and shirt now as well. _Now where the hell is my lighter…_ as I felt my pockets. 

I jumped as a hand reached out and a flame flicked to life just to my other side. 

"Whoa. You scared me." I managed to stammer. 

"You scared me too. Can you refrain from shooting people next door to me in the future?" It was Sara's voice. She was awake! 

"Sara! How are you feeling!" I asked excitedly, then made myself calm down and lit my cigarette on the flame. 

"I feel like slag. My throat scratches, my shoulder aches, it hurts to talk, and I hate my new haircut. You?"

"About the same." 

She laughed lightly, then coughed hard and cleared her throat, turning on the bedside light. She was seated in the chair to my side, one leg tucked under her body. Wearing a white tank top and black pants, her deep shoulder wound was clearly seen, the bandage starting on her deltoid and working it's way up to the base of the back of her neck. I forced myself to look away from the line of her shoulders and met her eyes. She looked out of the sides of her eyes at her hair, shrugging slightly and rolling her eyes. Her hair was cut very short, compared to the long spirals she had when I had first seen her, no higher than shoulder level, with a flip at the bottom. I smirked at her expression.

"You're right, that _is_ a bad haircut," I teased. She dropped her jaw in shock as her eyes widened, but suddenly realized I was joking and gave a tight-lipped smile.

"You'll have to reprimand your mechwarrior for poor performance then. I recommend a demotion in rank and reassigning her mech to me," she joked back. 

"Solaria cut it?" I asked. She nodded and it made sense then. How else would the little street urchin be able to keep her own hair in that eccentric spiked style? She definitely had her own way of doing things, a flair that stuck out in a crowd. 

"She's pretty good really," she said, as she ran her hands through the sides of it. "She wanted it shorter of course, and probably would've tattooed and pierced me if I'd have let her. I'm pretty stubborn though. Listen, Vance, I never got a chance to thank you for saving my life out there. Damn stupid of me to try taking on that Atlas. I'm lucky I got off as easy as I did." She broke off quietly and looked at the floor. My heart started beating a little faster. I couldn't respond. _No woman should be able to do this to me._ But she had. Was it the vulnerability? The circumstances? I couldn't pin it down. I took a drag and refocused on the confrontation.

"Someone had to take it on, and a Phoenix Hawk can never fight an Atlas toe-to-toe. You did the right thing with the unorthodox attack, and I saw the validity of the strategy and finished where you started. And even I needed help from Zanshin." It was true. I really admired her fighting style and taking on the Atlas full-bore with the death-from-above attack. It was gutsy, but also effective. She sensed the genuineness of the compliment and nodded. 

"As a soldier, it was a victory. As a mercenary though, it was a defeat, because now I have no mech." The anger was evident in her voice. I sensed that the anger was partially directed at me. "Better to be dead than to be dispossessed," she spat out. She stood up with a fire in her eyes and the muscles of her neck and shoulders were tense, probably both with emotion and physical pain from her wound. 

"You're more than your mech, Sara. The Colonel will look out for you. Trust me, he's not going to cut you from the unit for losing your mech. You'll be alright." At this she softened a little and the anger faded. 

"Yeah, I guess you're right. With my luck though I'll probably get a Stinger. Well, I better get down to the bay and see what is left of my Hawk. Maybe I can help them work on it. I'll see you in the briefing room." She strode to the door and exited abruptly. 

I swung my feet over the side of the bed and sat up with my head in my hands for a while. My side ached, but I reached over and grabbed my shirt and pulled it on. I grabbed one of my pistols, jacked out the clip and popped out the bullets, one by one. I counted and replaced them and compared them to the casing in my pocket. Identical. I returned the casing to the pocket and then did the same with the other gun, counting the bullets. Exactly as many as I expected. I pulled two fresh clips from my tac-jacket and loaded them into the guns and holstered them, then pulled out a handful of spare bullets and topped off the two other clips. Now no one would know how many shots I had really fired. I had just put them back in my jacket and lit another cigarette when a creak at the door announced an arrival. 

"Good, he's up Colonel." In came a guard and the Colonel. It was a different guard than the one who had helped me earlier. The Colonel sat down at the chair and the guard went outside. 

"Vance, how are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm feeling great actually. Good thing I had my flak vest on." 

"So we've mostly guessed at what happened, since we found two slugs in the wall and one in you, and three casings on the floor but why don't you tell me how it all happened?"

As I lie there, I explained what had happened, how the noise had alerted me, so I entered and saw the Atlas pilot had the pistol, so I shot him and his comrade and the ricochet had hit the infantryman. 

He accepted my explanation and moved on to what had happened in the meantime. I'd been out for 8 hours straight, and we'd landed in the highlands on Eaton's large arctic continent. Dry but mild, it was mostly uninhabited save a scattering of cities near the small ocean the planet had. Eaton was really one large continent, with one large ocean covering around 20% of it's planetary surface. It didn't quite separate the arctic continent, but terrestrial colonists found it hard to give up old ways of looking at things and thus, the misnomer persisted to this day. Reconnaissance reports showed a clear scope and we were now erecting a temporary base to protect the royals before going on some extended strike missions. 

"So get some more rest. You'll deploy in 10 hours, so we have a briefing in 9. Once you do, it'll be several days before you return and get a restful night's sleep again. Understood?"

I nodded and watched him leave the room. Three cigarettes later, I fell asleep.


	5. The Queen and Bishop Advance

**[CHAPTER 3 – "The Queen and Bishop Advance": Eaton: Dropship Poseidon April, 3061]**

I sat in the briefing room overlooking the holo as Colonel Grenadine fleshed out the mission. I had a strange sense of déjà vu and looked around for something to confirm that I wasn't stuck in some sort of time loop. The movement brought pain to my side to remind me that events both good and bad had indeed transpired and that I wasn't still on Outreach. 

"First of all, folks, I have some reassignments to make. Thanks to some excellent fighting by you folks and some hard work by our salvage teams, we have two new mechs online. They were able to piece together an Uziel, thanks to Zanshin and his hatchet, from the beheaded one and its companion. We also were able to get that Locust online. Movement speed is decreased from stock specifications until we can get some knee joint parts, but it's fully operational in all other respects. Sara, you'll be driving the Uziel for now. It's similar in weight and weaponry to your old Phoenix Hawk, so you should get accustomed to it easily. The Locust will go into Echo lance and we'll be bringing Diane back on to the active duty roster." A cheerful round-faced woman in the corner of the room sitting next to Paula "Huntress" Jalastar sat bolt upright with mouth agape. I was forced to presume that this was Diane Lawson, one of the wounded mechwarriors of Sara's former lance. She was dispossessed in the ambush and now, thanks to Solaria's gunnery skill with the Locust, she had a mech again. 

She shot Sara a look and the two of them were smiling at each other. I made a mental note of their interaction as Colonel Grenadine continued the briefing. 

"We've removed the TAG laser from the Raven and installed in on the Locust so Echo lance can do it's own spotting." _You did WHAT? _I shot Cadence a look and I could tell he was not pleased at all about the arrangement. He caught my eye and pursed his lips in frustration. I nearly interrupted the briefing, but held my tongue.

"…reports have come in from our recon elements. We are facing nearly an entire battalion of enemy mechs on planet. With 9 down, we are facing between 20 and 30 remaining, plus vehicles and infantry. According to information gleaned from our royal wards, the enemy has limited movement capability, just one Leopard-class dropship located here," he illuminated an airfield 500 klicks to the southeast, near the ocean and a large city, but still far on the outskirts of the city. "No doubt the dropship is guarded by several mechs as well. The airfield probably has a complement of aerospace fighters, but reports are conflicting on this and no visuals have been acquired." That was bad. It was always difficult for a mech to shoot down an airspace fighter if the fighter caught the mech off guard. 

"Also, we have to hit this firebase here," he pointed to another location, this time to the west "where we know a full lance of heavies is based. They are on patrol looking for us and we need to catch them and take them down. This will be a very hard lance to destroy so I am tasking this to Alpha, Echo, and Peregrine. Dreadnaught and Bravo lance will hit the airfield and the dropship. Destroy it if you can, but if the opportunity presents itself, capture it. Kith, you can fly it, so take a course that misleads them, such as straight for the north pole, and then backtrack to here." 

As the Colonel got into the specifics of the firebase hit and patrol sweep, I wondered about our mission. This would not be easy. A well-guarded airfield, mechs, fighters, vehicles, infantry, and above all, capturing a dropship. I started thinking possible plans over in my head. 

"Bravo, you'll be working solo and I'd recommend maintaining radio silence. We'll give you 48 hours before we come looking for you. So finish it by then or come home. If the situation changes we'll retreat the ship to our secondary waypoint here at nav Rho. If the dropship isn't here and you can't contact us, we'll be there with passive sensors on." I nodded. Nav Rho was far to the northeast, closing in on the pole, in the middle of very mountainous terrain. Navigating it would be problematic, but finding us in it would be impossible, and that was what mattered. 

"Alright. You have your objectives. When this operation is over we'll have free reign of most of the planet and it should be easy to hunt down the rebels then. So fight like it matters. If we lose, our primary advantage of surprise is gone for good and then we will be the ones on the defensive," he warned. Defensive strategies can be good, if they are flexible and reactive, and lure the enemy in, but most defensive strategies fall more into a fortress mentality, and ultimately fail. 

We all made our way down to the mech bay and powered everything up. I looked Eltanin over for any problems and when satisfied, turned to go find my mechwarriors. Instead I faced Sara. She had a stony expression but concern in her eyes.

"Be careful out there Vance. This one isn't going to be simple at all." Lots of tension in the air. Emotions run high before a big mission, but you don't need distractions on your mind. Sara was a big distraction. Now was not a good time for anything too serious, so I deflected the mood. 

"I will. Make sure you bring all your hair back with you this time," I joked. She burst into laughter and a wide smile. 

"If you don't come back I'll just come looking for smoke signals to rescue you," she retorted. She laughed once more than turned to her new mech. The Uziel had been repainted, but still had some battle scars. Dual particle projection cannons made it an excellent fire-support mech, as PPCs had incredible effective ranges compared to other weaponry. She looked once over her shoulder and flashed a smile as she started climbing the leg-mounted handholds. 

"Well sir, it looks like you're getting better at that," said Solaria. _The little punk_. I rounded on her and met her ear-to-ear grin with my game face. She sobered up a little as Zanshin and Cadence approached in the background. Dreadnaught silently strode into our midst with his professional air and stood waiting for orders with his arms crossed. Technically he was the same rank as me, but assigned to me this mission. 

"Now is not the time for this, Solaria." I commanded. "Dreadnaught, how are you going to play into all this anyway?" The man smiled knowingly and pointed over his shoulder to the aerospace fighter bay, and suddenly it all made sense. His fighter was a LAM. Land-to-Air Mech. It could transform between mech, fighter, and a LAM hybrid. Right now the mech stood in front of his bay. It was as short as the Raven nearly, but if you looked carefully you could make out the aerotech components, the engines, fuselage, control surfaces. LAMs were very expensive, and very advanced. And his was a _custom_ LAM as well. The whole mech, with the aerotech control surfaces and wing components, looked like a fearsome insect, the weapons looking like pincers and antenna. It was very disquieting to see the monstrosity the graceful aerofighter became when the situation called for it. Cadence uttered a rather profane epithet and then turned to Kith.

"Where in the thousand worlds did you get that?" Kith smiled wickedly and just looked at me. 

The story would have to wait for another day. So now I had a fifth mech with aerospace capabilities… this was excellent. They all listened intently as I laid out the mission profile, and soon we disembarked. 

It was a long, arduous journey to the outskirts. We kept under cover, or at least, as much as is possible with the giant war machines. Cadence's was far ahead with his Raven, spotting, jamming, and concealing our movements electronically. He was deft and skilled, and left tracks that were barely noticeable. 

The rest of us were not nearly so skilled, and our larger mechs made the process more difficult as well. To compensate we walked single file and matched strides to overlap our footprints. This meant our one track was very visible, but the mech tonnage and class was masked fairly effectively to a ground observer. However, this constant attention to our footwork made the trek wearisome and strenuous. By nightfall eight hours later, we were tired and I called a halt so we could rest awhile. 

The terrain was rough and dusty. The desert sand was broken only by jagged outcroppings of crimson stone, smooth on the windward face from the constant weathering of sand and grit. While my mechwarriors sat on some large boulders and worked on their rations and water bottles, I climbed a dune and pulled out my starlight binoculars. Far off on the horizon I could see the lights of the city, polluting the sky above it like a wisp of smoke. My immediate surroundings were completely devoid of any human influence, though I knew a road lay far to the south running east to west, and the one large river was to the east. 

I turned back to my group of warriors and joined them in refreshing myself with some food and drink. Solaria sat on the ground and seemed lost in thought, while Cadence paced anxiously about, constantly scanning the horizon and listening for enemies. Zanshin and Kith were cleaning their weapons, Zanshin was holding a heavy support cannon of some sort, and Kith had a Zeus heavy rifle. That was a lot of firepower between the two of them, and I knew that Zanshin carried even more with him. I drew my right-hand pistol and attached the silencer, then switched to my armor-piercing ammunition. I replaced the weapon and looked around, inhaling the dry air deeply. It had a cleanness to it, like the sand had scrubbed it of pollutants. I was looking up at the bright stars in the sky when Cadence made a shushing noise. 

We all stopped cold and followed his gaze. The wind subsided briefly, and then we heard it… the heavy dull impacts of mech feet. 

"Mount up! Passive sensors, Cadence cover us with the ECM, everyone get online now!"

We hurriedly stashed our gear and ascended our five mechs, and since I was closest I was up first. I dropped heavily into the command couch and brought the mech back from standby mode, quickly setting my sensors to passive. If they had a visual on our position, we'd be seen plain as day on thermal imaging or night vision. I cringed as I brought my weapons to bear and checked my grid, expecting a laser blast at any moment. 

"I'm online," said Cadence. 

"Good, go head that direction and keep it quiet, find out what we're dealing with here. Do not engage." The Raven pivoted and dashed back down our trail as the other mechwarriors checked in. Close call. My comm came to life as Cadence reported in. 

"One lance of heavies. Big boys… a Thunderbolt, two Marauders, and an Atlas. They seem to be following our trail." _Dammit. _That was nearly twice our combined tonnage. The Atlas was problem enough, but a pair of freaking Marauders? They were probably just as deadly. This was a fight we couldn't win, and they were on our trail, and closing. 

"Alright, get back here, I have an idea that could shake them. Cadence, scout straight east and find me that river, and maintain our single step formation."

I pushed Eltanin up to flank speed and made best speed between the dunes. Our lighter mechs were faster than the behemoths in pursuit. Additionally, they were going slow to follow our trail, and didn't know we were running yet. They weren't on the scope though, and we had yet to be hit by an active ping. At 87 kph I was moving faster than I ever had with Eltanin, and felt the mech begin to warm just a little from the extra heat buildup. Cadence flashed past me at his top speed and scouted ahead for a few minutes. 

"River dead ahead sir," he reported.

"Good work. Cross it and travel five minutes at top speed due east on the opposite bank, make your tracks obvious, then backtrack and meet us at the river." It was an old hunting trick. Make them think you left the river, then return to it and travel in the water, where no tracks can be seen. We continued running pell-mell for our target.

I came upon the river suddenly and was surprised as I burst into the shallow part, thrashing plumes of water high into the air and nearly losing my balance before I slowed down. I turned North and stayed near the bank, with the water about hip-deep. Zanshin came on the comm.

"Sir, our target is South."

"Yes Private, I know that, and so do they. When they figure out that we used the river for covering our tracks they will immediately assume we headed South, and head that way. We will therefore go North. Do not question any further orders." The comm went dead. 

Cadence soon caught up and fell in line behind us. We trudged up the river for ten minutes before I ordered a halt. 

"Cadence, can you program our mechs to go into the deep water on autopilot and go to standby, then return when recalled from your Raven." I asked. The commlink was quiet for a time, but then Cadence answered.

"That would be fairly trivial. I could have it done in two minutes tops as soon as you transmit the override codes."

"Alright everyone, you heard him and you know what comes next. Get onshore, transmit your override code and slave your mech to Cadence, then grab your gear and get on the ground." I waded out of the water and got to work sending my coding sequence to Cadence. Then I snagged my jacket and personal commlink and popped the hatch. 

The others were already on the ground and ready. As I climbed down I noticed Zanshin had his cannon slung on his back and Kith was cradling his Zeus rifle. Both looked upset about being out of their mechs and weren't trying to hide it. Solaria didn't look mad, but instead frightened and unsure of herself. She wore her sidearm but didn't have much else. 

I put the commlink earpiece into my inner ear and affixed the throat mic. I zipped the transmitter into the back of my tactical vest and then put on my black jacket. 

"Cadence?" The mech turned to face me, it's hawklike visage looking deadly and meancing in the dim starlight. "Put them in the middle of the river now." The mech stood motionless. Then suddenly the other four, one by one, jerked to life and oriented themselves eastward. They strode out into the water slowly and submerged fully in the deeps of the river. In the daytime, they would probably be easily seen since there was probably only a few meters between them and the surface. Had there been more light at the time, I would have realized I need not worry, as the river was so brown and muddy that it obscured them completely. 

"So now what do we do sir? I'm not exactly sure what we're gonna do now without our mechs," complained Zanshin. I rounded on him angrily and decided to not let his size intimidate me. 

"Perhaps you'd rather die fighting that lance of heavies, Private?" I sneered. He almost backpedaled a step and shook his head. "Then just learn to follow orders. They think there is one mech, and when they finally get here, Cadence will easily shake them. They could spend days chasing him and never catch him. Trust him, and trust me." The irony was of course that my untrustworthiness was what made me trustworthy in this situation. My treachery was the plan now. 

"Mount up on the Raven folks, Cadence, we need to get past our entry point before the heavies get there. Then past it there is a road and bridge. Drop us off there. Then you backtrack to here after the lance has passed, cover up these tracks, and wait for further instructions. If they come this way, power everything down and hide in the middle. Let them pass as I'm guessing they'll be on the bank to look for exit tracks. If we don't come back, head for navpoint Rho and tell command where our mechs are. I'll contact you if the mission is successful. Okay, make your best speed and try to keep things as steady as possible for us riders." As I said this I climbed the Raven and got next to the missile rack mount. I found some good handholds and Solaria worked her way in right in front of me. Zanshin got near the laser mount and held on tightly. He did not seem to relish the prospect of being on the top of a mech that might be a target for a lance of heavy mechs. Kith surprised me by pulling out a pair of gripper gloves and crouching on top of the middle of the mech. Gripper gloves generated an energy field that allowed you to climb nearly anything, the sonic effect somehow sticking you to the surface. They also had amazing strength, allowing a wearer to easily crush concrete in his hands. 

Without much warning, the Raven broke into a quick trot, splashing water and mist high into the air around us. He slowly increased speed and the experience was absolutely terrifying. We hung on for dear life as filthy silty water very nearly engulfed us in our passage. I would find out later that he had pushed the mech to top speed and the few agonizing minutes of fear were soon over. I saw the bridge up ahead, well lit and made from stone and metal. The same deep red stone we saw in the desert. The mech slowed down and we gratefully climbed off, now throughly soaked and muddied. Uncaring, we dropped into the water, waist deep for us but only ankle deep for the mech. Cadence turned his mech around, gave us a nod and burst back the way we had come, sending us running further inland to avoid the plumes of water that came shooting towards us. 

We looked pretty bedraggled. We took some time to clean the bulk of the water and grime from ourselves and our equipment then started planning a highway ambush. The road was well-lit, but if a car came alone it would be easy. I ordered Solaria to give her gear to me and she immediately realized what was going to happen next. 

"Oh no you don't. Please tell me you have some better idea than the 'pretty girl needs a lift gets the car to stop' sort of ambush. That is probably the oldest one in the book!" I smiled and I heard Zanshin chuckling under his breath. 

"Sorry Solaria. Get them to stop just in front of that lightpost and keep their attention on you as we ambush them from both sides at once." I commanded. 

"I'll take passenger side," said Kith as he hefted his Zeus "tell them your boyfriend ditched you here when you told him you were breaking up with him." He smirked and then blitzed to the other side of the road. Solaria sighed audibly and walked out into the light. 

We didn't have to wait long. A wide-tracked utility truck came after about three minutes. We hunched down low to avoid the headlights and Solaria put on a good show, waving and jumping. In her jean shorts and tank top, she cut a pretty desirable figure even from far off, short though she was, and we heard the engine slow and the brake whine as the vehicle slowed to a stop. Solaria cheered with genuine happiness and made her way in front of the vehicle with shouts of thanks as we dashed out of our hiding places and drew weapons. 

The young man at the steering wheel leering at the well-defined tattooed beauty in his headlights suddenly felt a bright red light on his eye from the right and turning to look immediately felt the muzzle of Kith's rifle press into his cheek, the laser sight brightly illuminating his temple. 

"We are commandeering your vehicle, and your life if you twitch," threatened Kith who held the heavy rifle easily with one hand as he leaned in the open window. 

"Shut off the engine and step out slowly." I commanded from the other side. He turned his head slowly to face Zanshin's assault cannon. The man was in no position to argue and did as was ordered. 

"It'd be quickest if we just shot him and threw him in the river sir," said Zanshin, causing the man's eyes to widen and a bead of sweat to appear on his forehead. 

"We're not here to orphan any children, or grieve any parents." I turned to the man and produced a cloth I had previously moistened with chloroform and applied it to his mouth and nose. I held it on forcibly and his knees sagged. Chloroform would kill if applied long enough, but if it was just a few seconds, unconsciousness was all that resulted. The man now lay on the asphalt at our feet.

"Zanshin, get in the back with him, bind and gag him with anything you can find. Kith, you're shotgun, Sol, you're driving." She let out a laugh and we all climbed in. The passenger compartment had a narrow opening between the two seats that led to the back. The man was some sort of electrical technician, judging from the tools and equipment in the back. He had probably been out repairing a power or communications tower. Zanshin was securing his hands and feet with wires and doing a thorough job of it. The man had a bump where his head had hit the ground and some scratches but was otherwise unharmed. I situated myself and patted Solaria on the shoulder.

"Alright, take us into town Solaria, Kith, keep that rifle out of sight but ready." We began the hour-long drive into town, and by the time we got there, the night was getting cold. 

Cadence found himself bored almost immediately. He made his way far north of the hidden mechs and started making rabbit trails for any pursuer to follow. Since a Raven can make rabbit trails at over 100 kph, and an Atlas can follow a rabbit trail at closer to 30 kph, he soon just set his autopilot to the task with no fear of detection. So to pass the time he started working on a decrypt for the random communications his heavily modified communications suite was picking up. Surprisingly, they weren't even using a very good encrypt pattern. He loaded his slicer utility and starting picking away at the enemy comm channel. 

Within minutes he had discovered their frequency and had it decrypted. The incoming lance was a very talkative bunch, as non-professional warriors tend to be, and Cadence started up his recorder.

"How far do you think he went down-river, boss?" 

"At least to the bridge. He probably would turn off then, scared off by the lights."

"I don't get it, why cross the river then come back when he was a lot closer before?"

"Because, stupid, he got spooked by something, probably a patrol from Imbrahim's lance. So now he's wading through the water so he leaves no tracks for us to follow. It's an old hunting trick!"

"So how come we're not in the water too?"

"We don't need to hide our tracks, and this way, we'll catch him because he's moving slower in the water than we are on the ground." Cadence started chuckling. 

"Oh, I guess that makes sense. They teach all this stuff to you at the academy?"

"Of course. And a lot more, too. Now shut up and keep your attention and your searchlight on the ground." 

Cadence smiled broadly to himself. They were headed south, and at the pace their mechs were making, they wouldn't reach the end of the river before midnight. At the pace their _brains_ were working, they wouldn't reach any solid conclusions for much longer, maybe all night. When they did figure out to go north, they would be so far south that they'd spend almost as much time returning, and that was if they worked hard all night! By then, he could have made 5 days worth of tracks on the dunes for them to follow. Plus he'd have plenty of advance warning from their constant comm chatter. _How many days does it take four rebels in heavy metal to bring down one little Raven?_ Cadence thought for a moment. _Well, it's certainly more than two, and possibility an exponential function inversely related to their intelligence_. He smirked and plotted the asymptotic data in his head. 

Cadence then turned and headed for the river, checked his life support, and plunged in. He brought his Raven to standby and set the machine to wake him in two hours, he had about four hours of air. He could easily afford to catch some sleep now that he had them playing his game. Many mechwarriors preferred large mechs with massive weapons loadouts. Sure, that was fine if you had a stand-up fight on your hands, but Cadence preferred the versatility his Raven, which he called Pi, to any firepower. He could detect them far off, jam their sensors and communications, and outrun them easily. They could kill him with one shot, but he would never be in their crosshairs. Cadence smiled, and slept. 


	6. The Arrogant King is Checked

**[CHAPTER 4 – "The Arrogant King is Checked": Eaton: At the Enemy Airfield, April, 3061]**

The sentry paced the ground near the security checkpoint in the deep darkness of the cold desert night. His position was illuminated briefly by a passing vehicle and he shielded his eyes from the glare. Just then his headpiece beeped his fifteen minute reminder. He slung his rifle and reached to his boom-mic.

"This is Tyran, checking in, all clear at the east SC."

He heard a brief acknowledgement then reached to his side pouch, then paused as he heard another vehicle approach and waited for it to pass. He then glanced around furtively and snuck a silvery flask out of his pouch and took a swig of the rich liquor it contained. The man smacked his lips and moved to recap the vial when he heard a noise behind him and quickly moved to conceal his alcohol. 

Zanshin wrapped his gigantic hands in front of the man's neck and on top of his head and locked his left tightly on his right elbow while he lifted the man off the ground. The guard fought and struggled to release himself, sputtering up the liquor he had just imbibed, soon unable to breathe at all. His legs kicked wildly as Zanshin put pressure on the man's windpipe and carotid artery, and within seconds, he was out cold. 

Zanshin drug the man back to our hiding position from which we had observed him pacing, checking in and drinking his alcohol for nearly 40 minutes. We stripped him of his passkey and comm equipment, which Kith donned. Now that we knew his name, we could check in for him if needed. However, we were hoping to be long gone in 15 minutes. I swiped the man's nose with chloroform to ensure his unconsciousness and we moved towards the checkpoint to the airfield. 

The field was intended for civilian use, but the rebels had landed a Leopard-class dropship in the middle of the main strip, rendering it useless to fixed-wing aircraft. The concrete was scored heavily from the blast of the Leopard's fusion engine and retrorockets, leaving a wide blackened area surrounding the ship. The main dropship hold was closed and there was no easy way into the vessel that we could see. It was powered down, of course, and whatever contingent of mechs might have come with it were nowhere in sight right now. The only way to get in would be to get them to open a hatch, and something told me they weren't going to fall for the old singing telegram trick. 

So we swiped the security station with the passkey we borrowed from the guard and the gate swung inward to admit us. We sprinted inside and out of the light along the perimeter fence, which was electrified and topped with monofilament wire. It was dangerous, nasty stuff that left deep cuts if you even brushed it lightly and was often issued as a garrote to special forces groups in the former Free Rasalhague Republic. We ran in a stealthy crouch towards the tower in the distance. If we could get on the tower communications equipment, we could perhaps convince the dropship to open a hatch. That had been Solaria's suggestion, and I acquiesced, but had a plan of my own. 

I switched the channel on my comm gear to the prearranged frequency. I gave a rapid series of signals on the unit in code and heard a response clicked back. It was amazing that as simple a code as the Morse system had persisted from the ancient Terran military well beyond the millennium in which it was devised. It was possible that my mechwarriors knew Morse code, and in fact very likely with a veteran like Kith, but no one had noticied me tap out my signal to my contact. 

We reached the side of the primary hangar, not a hundred meters from the tower and I motioned for us to skirt the hangar. I stole a glance upwards at the massive structure and the huge doors on the north face we were pressed against. Breaking into a run, we began the long trek around the hangar, which abutted the fenceline closely. We moved quietly, like feral jungle animals that are neither seen nor heard. Yet we were detected all the same, as I knew we would be. As we passed the second of the three great doors on the hangar a great steaming hiss rent the air, bringing us all to a halt.

The hydraulic arms on the doors now churned and the three hangar bays ground open simultaneously, drawing in a rush of cool night air and spilling out bright amber artificial lighting. The metallic rasping of the doors moving upwards in their tracks was loud enough to prevent any communication between me and my team. 

We spun to face inward, caught in the middle of the doorway and directly in the light, as inside a team of infantry scattered around a pair of tracked vehicles with heavy cannons mounted on their topside turrets all tracked their eyes and sights to the interlopers before them. They underestimated, however, the reflexes of the mechwarriors, which were exceptional by any standard, and far more attuned when in a combat situation. 

Kith Sivar was the first one to act. With blinding speed he burst into a full sprint for the doorframe and leveled his Zeus rifle at the opponents. With a sharp crack the Zeus rang out and smote the captain of the westward tracked vehicle, who was sitting atop his mount and holding a bullhorn with his right hand. His body was punctured and thrown backward clear off behind his vehicle. A split second later Zanshin had opened fire with his assault cannon as he ran away from the door at an angle with a northwest heading. His cannon lit up the night with bright flashes and filled the air with flying lead and casings. A trio of infantryman in front of the second vehicle were thrown back roughly by the chattering onslaught of Zanshin's weapon, and I knew they were dead, even with the body armor they wore. 

I burst east at the same time while drawing my unsilenced pistol and just then the infantrymen began to react, filling the air with deadly slugs, shot, and flechettes. Solaria had pulled a grenade and tossed it in backhandedly as she ran my direction, the blast sending infantryman to the floor as the rest scattered for deeper cover. Their ambush had gone horribly wrong, but so had our approach. Or so my team thought. 

Then the tide turned. We had just reached the cover of the opposite sides of the hangar doorframe when out of the two flanking doors strode a pair of Wasps, one to the west of us, and one to the east. They were light, agile mechs, with low technology levels, paper-thin armor, pitiful weaponry loadouts, and slipshod sensor systems. However weak they were on the battlefield, to a warrior on foot, they were a nearly insurmountable opponent, and they knew it. The external speakers on the eastern one bellowed loudly at us.

"HALT! GIVE UP NOW OR YOU WILL BE KILLED!"

Of all our weapons, only Zanshin's cannon could really make any dent whatsoever in even the eggshell armor of the Wasps, and he wouldn't be able to do critical damage to them before they could kill us all, and we all knew it. I put up my hands and shouted a response as I tossed away my pistol.

"WE SURRENDER!"

I looked back and Zanshin and Kith both held their weapons a moment then tossed them to the ground and placed their hands on their heads. We stood for a moment waiting and I noticed Solaria was bleeding all over her right shoulder and upper arm, mingling with the sweat and tattoos underneath as the blood ran down her side. She was breathing in short gasps and her eyes were wide as she looked at me with abject fear and uncertainty in her eyes. 

Before I could ask her anything, the infantry rushed out of the hangar and tackled us, pinning us all to the ground cruelly. I felt a knee dig into my back as my hands were twisted into bindings and locked securely in place. My nose was smashed against the ground and my left cheek was skinned raw on the cold concrete as I shut my right eye to the bright light shining down directly on me, probably the mechs' searchlight. I was patted down and my comm gear seized. I was hauled roughly to my feet and spat the grit from my mouth and blood from my lip with an evil grin on my face. They hadn't found my concealed pouch with its silenced pistol. These rebels were very bad at fighting, and they would continue to pay for it as long as I drew breath. 

I looked around and the infantrymen were all around us, with rifles and pistols at the ready. Of the twenty-eight man platoon, a quick count only revealed twenty-one surrounding us. _When you ambush four mechwarriors, you better be damn sure you do it right. _I forced myself to stop smiling about it before I invited a rifle butt to my already bleeding cheek and looking around, I identified their leader. 

He was busily barking orders to troopers securing Zanshin, not a small task, and seemed to assume that Zanshin was the leader. I mentally noted his mistake and decided not to correct him. The infantry did it for me anyway a brief moment later when he handed the officer my comm gear and pointed towards me. The man strode over to me and without any warning kicked me behind the knee, dropping me to the ground. I instinctively rolled on my shoulder to absorb the worst of it, since I didn't have the option of catching myself on my forearms, with my hands bound behind my back as they were. He delivered one kick to my stomach as I lay there, which didn't hurt much with my flak vest on, but I decided to pretend that it had hurt and rolled away from him curled into a ball. 

"Kulaski, take them to the brig, the Captain wants to interrogate them," he said and strode off, obviously quite pleased with himself. He started issuing more orders to tend to the dead and dying as a troop of four came over and picked me up. We were rounded up into a single file line and marched straight towards the dropship. Most of our gear was tossed into a duffel and handed to the Sergeant, who led the way. 

Behind us, I caught a glimpse of one of them claiming Zanshin's cannon as we walked off at gunpoint. The heated arguments about the remaining plunder continued until we were out of hearing range a few minutes later. The looming shadow of the dropship was now before us. Leopard dropships are fairly graceful and aerodynamic, as far as dropships go, and were the most common military ship in existence. They carried up to four mechs and two fighters, but of course many had been modified heavily. This one had not been modified much, if the exterior was any indication. This meant that I had a pretty good idea of the layout of the ship before I even entered it. 

We approached the ship and the front hatch was opened to us, dim light from inside illuminating the doorway for us. They herded us in and down the main spine corridor of the ship. _If memory serves, the brig should be right… here._ Sure enough, they opened up the cells and I caught brief looks from each warrior as they were canned. From Solaria, terror, from Zanshin, barely contained rage, and from Kith, a smug sly grin. I didn't doubt he had escaped from many prisons before, given his extensive battle history. Still, something about that grin troubled me. 

Then I was shoved into my cell, tripping over my cot and bruising my knee on the frame as I fell onto it. The door slammed shut behind me and the hatch was locked. I rolled over and sat up. They had taken my lighter and cigarrettes. _DAMN. _Of course, lighting one would have been problematic anyway. But I had two very good cards left to play, and my opponent didn't know what I had in mind. 

About twenty minutes later my door creaked and clunked open, admitting the Sergeant. He carried a laser pistol and trained it on me immediately. He removed his thick cigar with the other and blew a puff in my face before speaking.

"So answer this to me, and do it quick, what were you doing last night?" _The pass phrase_. I struggled to recall the correct response and it quickly came to me.

"Chasing the stars from Outreach, and bringing them down to earth."

"Which stars?" he immediately asked.

"Eta Leonis, Beta Orionis, and Rastaban." He grunted and holstered the laser pistol. He seemed surprised and replaced the cigar, talking out of the side of his mouth while chewing the end of it. 

"All right Vance, the Captain will see you now. Let's get those binders off. No need to keep pretending, you've been damn convincing enough. I lost six men to you and yours."

"That wasn't my fault," I replied "you should have had your men under better cover, that fool of a tankdriver was just sitting in the open with the bullhorn. He deserved what he got for his carelessness." It was true. The ambush was supposed to have been bloodless, but the careless infantry learned a lesson about taking on mechwarriors tonight, and learned it the hard way.

"Shut it. Just follow me." He turned and led the way out of the cell block back down the fuselage of the ship to the officer's quarters. I mentally noted my path and which cells had housed my mechwarriors as I followed the rebel to the Captain's quarters. He opened the door and motioned for me to enter, catching me by the shoulder on my way in to softly threaten with low voice and grim eyes. 

"Next time I'm not gonna take you alive. So you better do your job right and finish it this time and get off planet before I start feeling less charitable. I don't like double-agents, and if you don't deliver, I'll kill you myself." I pushed past him and shut the door behind me. 

The office was well lit, comparatively, and accompanied by an adjoining stateroom for the ship's Captain. Elegant mahogany furnitive, bolted securely and hinged to the aft wall of course, and thick plush carpeting on all walls gave the room a luxurious feel. The desk was uncluttered, with a single terminal recessed into it and a bottle of Steiner ale and a pair of glasses accompanied it. The high-backed chair faced away from me. Another was placed across the desk opposite it. 

"Sit down Vance," came the voice from the chair as he spun to face me "and please, have a drink and a cigar." The chair completed its turn and, as expected, the self appointed Baron Fortunada grinned across the desk at me. I gave a slight formal court bow and took the seat. I graciously accepted the cigar he proffered and poured the drinks as well. He spoke first.

"Well, I was beginning to wonder when I'd hear from you, or if at all. Another of my agents onboard the dropship dropped off contact recently and I wondered if he had perhaps blown your cover as well." _Yes, that would be the infantryman I shot this afternoon, so he won't be giving you any more information. _I tried not to smirk, and succeeded. 

"I'm curious to hear your explanation for your rather inadequate services thus far." He let hang that subtle threat in the air, and then the man took his drink and sniffed it like strutting peacock who thought it was beneath him to have to consume anything at all. The Baron was middle aged and slightly overweight from his years of excess on this planet. He had been a mechwarrior once, as many royal heirs, and he was well-muscled underneath his layer of insulation. Fierce brown eyes under bushy eyebrows pierced my own, as he stroked his rather flamboyant moustache with his left hand. He wore a military uniform that I could not identify, but looked like it was ancient Terran in origin, possibly European. It was deep blue with gold trim and epaulettes, fitted with a gold and silver sash and it was adorned garishly with medals of great diversity. 

"Well sir, I have gathered a great deal of information for you to act on, and it will certainly deliver the Grenadiers into your hands. However, in my lance I was assigned a mechwarrior who is a genius at communications intercepts and decryption, and I didn't dare blow my cover by risking a communiqué with him around. I set him busy distracting one of your patrols northwest of here and brought the rest of Bravo lance with me. So I've managed to take away half of the strength of the company and with the information I will give you now, you'll be able to put the rest of them away for good." I lied to him blatantly, but it was the kind of lie a preening bird like him would want to hear. I wasn't sure if he was starved for attention, megalomaniacal, or just plain gullible. He broke into a wide smile and raised his glass to me. His gold teeth gleamed in the artificial light. 

"Ah, so now I understand your clever plan with the ambush and capture of your team. It was to rob them of several good mechs that might have been used in defense of the command ship. Excellent work my good man. You however, seem to have one extra mechwarrior, by my count. If one is distracted, and three are here, then that is surely one more than most lances carry." He acted as if he had caught me lying, and I was lying, but he hadn't caught the real lie. I needed to be more careful, because he certainly did not trust me.

"Well sir, the shorter of the two men is their primary aerospace pilot, and his fighter is a custom LAM. I know it sounds unbelievable, but if you check the records of our descent you'll see that he flies a fighter of unknown design. So this will work out even more to your advantage, as their primary air-defense warrior is currently in your brig." I grinned and lit the cigar, tasting the rich aroma as my opponent across from me laughed a deep, malicious laugh. 

"Vance, you are truly a rogue. I admire your style though. And now I ask for the information that will deliver them into my hands, give it to me and I will pay you right here and now. I have a direct uplink to the HPG already established. The three million we agreed upon at Outreach can be yours within the hour, if you seal your end of the bargain now." _Paydirt._ I had memorized the coordinates on the way and instructed the Baron to have his satelite scan the region where the dropship was currently located. We found it on the display and marked it clearly. I then told him about the firebase hit by Alpha, and the secondary rendezvous point Nav Eta. He was very pleased and we were soon discussing tactics and I was playing along rather nicely, egging him on envisioning the destruction of the Grenadiers. Really, though, he needed little prodding.

"Well sir, if you're convinced that I've done my job, I would very much appreciate payment, and the chance to get back to my mech and off this rock. I still have one loose end to tie up with my last mechwarrior. But he won't be expecting the attack, and I'll kill him easily. The dropship will be vulnerable for as long as sixteen more hours. So, shall we complete the business transaction?" I tried not to appear too demanding, but instead emulate the aristocratic and politic manner of speech he had been using. Luckily, he was now trusting me completely. I was fortunate indeed that he did not connect my last name, Strovski, to the bodyguard list of the royal family, where he might have seen Gregor Strovski, KIA. If he had known that fact, he might have been more prepared for what I would do next. 

"Of course my friend! You have lived up to your promise and been more helpful than I ever dreamed and I will be rewarded for hiring you. Soon this planet will be ours and the royal family will be my personal slaves, and truly, no sum of money is too small to have a Duke and Duchess cleaning your house for you, hai?" I found the comment genuinely funny, if not demented in the extreme, and chuckled. 

"In fact, come and watch me perform the transaction, so that you may have no doubt of the validity. For I hope to utilize your exceptional skills sometime again in the future." I rose and stood on the right of his chair as he accessed the account and performed the transfer request. In my right I held my glass, but my left was behind his chair, and I reached to my rear concealed pouch slowly. I slurped my ale as I unzipped it just enough to withdraw my pistol. The Baron was busily typing in the command and I flicked off the safety as I watched the HPG confirmation come back. My account balance, 3,042,500 C-bills. I was now filthy stinking rich, and only two people in the galaxy knew about it, myself and the unsuspecting victim beside me. The platoon leader who I had killed earlier in the day would have known too. My elation and rage had suddenly peaked, and my medipack shot me up with adrenals as my pulse raced. 

"Thank you sir, but I regret to inform you there is one debt left to pay, as you killed my brother in your uprising a month ago." I kicked his chair to the side and he was flung to face me with a look of shock wide on his face. In the moment of dawning comprehension my sidearm spat twice rapidly with a high-pitched puffing sound. The slugs caught him point-blank in the chest and buried deeply into his body, his uniform now wetted darkly with his blood, and a thin ribbon of crimson trailing down the silver sash. He eyes blinked up at me as his mouth opened, but no sound came out, and he died staring up at me, still shocked by the sudden violence of the attack. 

I switched the gun to my right hand and turned to the monitor. Covering my tracks wouldn't be easy, but it was made somewhat easier by the fact that I was already using the Baron's security levels. It took me almost five agonizing, vulnerable minutes before I cleared the database of all data, reset the system, and locked the ship down. With all the doors locked tight, no reinforcements were coming anytime soon. 

I pulled the chair with the body of the Baron back to the terminal, and faced it to the wall, opting to leave his eyes unclosed. I heard a noise in the corridor and shuffled to the far wall, flicking on my laser sight and drawing a bead on the door. 

The hatch was opened inward and the Sergeant leaned inward, leaving his right hand on the doorframe and supporting his weight on his left as he peeked in and started to speak.

"Sir I just noticed that…" My pistol chirped and the round caught the Sergeant directly in the forehead, covering the bulkhead with his blood. His body collapsed halfway into the room as I leapt over him into the corridor with the pistol held in both hands at the ready. 

A startled soldier just behind his fallen Sergeant was fumbling for his laser pistol when I put the laser reticle on his right eye. He froze in place and opened his hands upward, as still as a statue. Feeling merciful, I took the laser off his eye and motioned to turn around with my left hand, and also then motioned a 'sshhh' and a shooting motion. He got the idea and turned around slowly. I withdrew my chloroform and pressed my pistol into the small of his back. I reached around and placed the cloth on his nose until he slumped to the floor in a heap. I drug him and the Sergeant back into the officer's quarters. I pulled the passkey off the Sergeant and stripped him of the duffel on his back with the bulk of our gear. I donned my communication gear and set it back to my lance frequency. 

Now I stripped the two of them of their laser pistols and put them into my second concealed holster and my thigh holster. Finally I tied the unconscious man securely and exited the room, shutting the door behind me as I slung the duffel over my back. 

It was a short trip back to the brig hallway, but I took my time and checked carefully for sentries, moving slowly and stealthily and listening for long periods of time without moving. Eventually though, I came to the brig along the main passageway and opened the first and closest door as quietly as I could. 

Inside on the bunk Solaria was hugging her knees to her chest with her face buried. The white cot was stained red in a few places from her bloody wounds. She had taken a hit to the shoulder, probably with flechette ammunition, in the ambush and it looked very painful. The dried blood had hardened and marred the pattern of her tattoo. Her head snapped up to look at me. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face was weary and resigned, but suddenly shot with hope as her eyes widened. She started for me with a gleeful cry but I motioned for silence and moved to undo her bindings. Pocketing them, I handed her one of the laser pistols, which she took with her left hand as her right hung limply at her side. Questions and more questions glimmered in her eyes but I smiled grimly and motioned to follow. Answers would wait, and real answers would never actually be given, though the poor girl deserved better. I certainly did not deserve the gratitude and adoration she was showering on me with her eyes right now. But if I played my part correctly, she would never know that. 

Zanshin's cell was next. I opened the door and saw him in the corner, waiting for just such an opportunity. He started, as if to spring on me, but stopped dumbfounded as he recognized my face and a broad smile crept over his face as he glanced at me and Solaria, who was also beaming. Somehow he had gotten his hands to the front and I removed his binders as well. I again motioned for silence and opened Kith's door. He was leaning against the wall, his binders lying on the bed next to him, and as he shot me a puzzled expression we all piled into his room to have a very brief tactical meeting.

"Okay, let's do this quickly. The captain and sergeant are dead, and one sentry is unconscious. Zanshin, you and Solaria will guard the corridor and take rear guard, stay five to ten meters behind us and cover us. Kith, you and I need to get on the bridge and power this thing up. We can finish sweeping the ship once we get airborne. Here's most of your gear," I said, as I set the duffel on the edge of the cot "minus the few weapons we lost out there, but it could have been a lot worse. Accidentally, we gained through defeat the one thing we needed, entrance to the dropship. Now it's ours, and I intend to take it while we still can." 

They were all still too stunned to do anything but nod in ascent. At this point, they probably were regarding me highly, and I hoped that they would never discover what had really given me the edge over our foes. That meeting on Outreach, just before I went to David Grenadine, had been the most spiteful thing I had ever done. To sign up as a double agent for rebels who had killed my brother was dirty, even for a mercenary. To then betray even them was a new low. The price was right, and someone would have done it if not me, but this way was oh-so-poetic. They were felled by their own treachery, and I profited handsomely off it, both monetarily and in reputation within my new unit. I was getting paid to fight both sides of the same war, and paid very handsomely. Now I had chosen a side. Really though, fate had chosen my side. I couldn't have betrayed the Colonel and Sara to these upstarts. My thick skin I had always prided myself on was weakening, and the men and women under my command were winning my respect and friendship. I couldn't destroy as noble and virtuous a unit as the Grenadiers. For mercenaries, they understood the warrior's code better than nearly any house lord's personal bodyguard, and that was something else I respected. 

We exited the cellblock and progressed to the fore of the mighty ship of war. We got a chance to practice good small-unit tactics as we did so, slicing the angles into each room we passed and covering each other properly. Most mechwarriors made excellent infantry, when the need arose, and our academy training came back alive as we progressed through the corridor and up a short angle up to the bridge. 

I produced the security card and swiped the scanner, and the bridge door cycled open to admit us. One man was present, sitting at the yoke of the starship and using his right hand to navigate holographic readouts and turned to look over his shoulder when we strode onto the deck. 

On the bridge of a Leopard the layout is awkward, as 'down' in normal gravity is not 'down' when the ship is under acceleration. Like most rooms on a Leopard, the room was set up as to have two axis of gravity. For example, the cots in the brig were on a reversible axis on the aft wall, and could be flipped in such a way as to support a prisoner when 'down' became to the rear of the ship, where the massive fusion thrusters mounted aft propelled the craft through space. Here in the bridge, the piloting seats, which sat facing foreward when the ship was in the atmosphere, could be pitched forward along with all displays and consoles, for when the craft exited the planetary gravity well. The deck dropped off sharply straight down, and a second command deck at the proper second orientation was there. Thus it was a ladder from planetside deck that Kith and I walked horizontally on foreward, or 'up', to his position as he swiveled to face us. 

"Don't touch anything, or you'll touch nothing ever again." Threatened Kith as I targeted him with my pistol. His eyes flicked briefly to his sidearm then he slumped resignedly. I handed Kith the cloth. 

"You won't be harmed, so just cooperate." I commanded as Kith placed the cloth over the man's mouth. The mixture was weakened considerably by now and it took sixteen seconds before the man passed out. Kith removed him and handed him to me. I set him to the floor and attached the binders.

"All right Kith, power this up and get the weapons ready in case they notice and bring those mechs to bear. I'm gonna go help sweep the rest of the ship with Zanshin and Solaria. How long till we can be airborne?" I asked, as I finally got the chance to pull a cigarette and I quickly lit up while he answered. 

"At most, maybe fifteen minutes. I'll be able to take care of those small mechs if needed, provided I can get the systems online before they detect our powerup." 

"Alright. Do it. I'll be back as soon as I can."

I passed back to the corridor and shut the door behind me. Solaria and Zanshin waited, with their pistols aimed down the passageway. I motioned for them to form up and we systematically swept the ship then, and finding no one we were soon back on the bridge with Kith. I had made a brief stop in the Captain's quarters to attach a binding on the unconscious soldier there. Solaria and Zanshin were a little shell-shocked over the two dead men in that room that I had shot. Solaria had ventured around to check the Captain's stateroom and upon returning had gotten a good look at the dead Baron, eyes still staring, and she shuddered. 

Back on the bridge Kith informed me of the progress. He risked a quick active sensor sweep and found a clear scope. The three of us waited on the command deck and dropped wearily into the command seats. I took the Captain's chair. Zanshin was examining Solaria's shoulder wound as I brought up the command interface. The controls were alien to me but I managed to bring up the display and get the tactical grid online. 

"Dreadnaught, what's our ETD?" I asked.

"Three minutes, I'm bringing the drives up to full power now. If they haven't noticed us powering up already, they definitely will in a few seconds."

I brought up the comm system and switched to our lance frequency, it was unencrypted, but that couldn't be helped right now. 

"Cadence, prepare for evac at prearranged location. ETA, twelve minutes."

If anyone was monitoring our frequency, they probably still wouldn't have gleaned much information out of that short blip. My attention was diverted as Solaria suddenly hissed with an intake of breath as Zanshin did his best to disinfect her shoulder wound. It'd need some minor surgery to remove those flechettes once we returned to the Poseidon. 

Out of the front viewport the airport sprand to life suddenly, as all the lights went up and the spotlights focused on the dropship. A siren wailed and the APCs roared out of the hangars to intercept. Two additional contacts showed on our scope now, the pair of light mechs, and a laser beam flashed brightly, striking near the viewport just before Kith closed the blast shield, obstructing our view to the chaos we had created. 

With a roar the primary engines came to life and shook the ship. I noticed Kith bring up the tactical screen and felt the dropship rock slightly to starboard as the portside weapons blisters opened up on one of the mechs. The recoil rattled the ship again and I could make out the scream of the rockets over the combined din of the battle and engines. On my tactical grid both mechs beat a hasty retreat behind some cover. Kith then focused his attention on the yoke, lifting the ship slowly off the ground. 

Without warning, he opened up the throttle and the ship leapt forward, leaving the airfield behind. We bore westward and the massive vessel gained altitude ponderously, as the lift surfaces were not substantial. The last building before the exterior fence was approaching quickly and we breathed a sigh of relief as the nose cleared it, barely, then we cringed as the landing skids clipped the roof of the building with a horrific wrenching of aluminum and light building roofing. Considering the tonnage of the vessel, our damage was probably insignificant, but had we seen the building crumble behind us we probably would have burst into laughter. 

The ship burned high into the night sky on blue plumes as the amazed townfolk stared out their windows, awoken by the roar of the fusion engines. Lasers and tracer fire tracked the ship as it gained altitude and turned northwest, the brilliant beams of green and crimson casting deep shadows in the dark night. Answering fire from the mighty ship reached down here and there with rockets, lasers and autocannon shells, fiercely raking the defenders with impact and heat. In a few short minutes, the craft was out of range, and the rebels scrambled to intercept the fleeing behemoth in mechs and vehicles. With their chain of command broken, however, their ranks were thrown into chaos and the pursuit was haphazard and disjointed. 


	7. The Taking of the Kingside Rook

**[CHAPTER 5 – "The Taking of the King-side Rook": Eaton: April, 3061]**

Cadence awoke with a start. The communications software was blinking for his attention. He cursed aloud and sat upright in his seat, hands flying over the controls as he brought up the comm log history. He checked the lance channel and saw a recording, drawing a second curse from his lips. He ran the playback and noted it was only thirty-some seconds old.

"Cadence, prepare for evac at prearranged location. ETA, twelve minutes."

He brought his mech to life and fired up all systems. He wondered silently to himself how the hell Vance and the rest of the lance had gotten things done so quickly. Putting his neurohelmet back on, he brought the Raven up to speed. 

The two desert birds perched on the piece of driftwood on the bank screeched and alit as the comparatively massive Raven burst from the deeps of the river, water shearing off in great black sheets and pouring over the shoreline with a crash. The behemoth turned southwards adroitly and sprang forward, accelerating to flank speed. 

Cadenece brought his radar up and switched to active mode. The threat indicator screamed at him as an enemy contact bore down on him from the southeast. He quickly scanned the target as his stomach bottomed out in fear and trepidation. Suddenly he laughed as he realized it was the airborne Leopard-class dropship heading straight for him. The enemy assault lance was not in the immediate vicinity. He hoped that Vance and the rest of the team was in that dropship, and not the enemy, but he was taking a terrible risk with the active sensor sweep anyway. Just then the comm crackled.

"Cadence, we've got you on scope. We'll be touching down soon – get the mechs out now because this LZ is about to get very hot." It was Vance's voice. 

Cadence confirmed and pushed his Raven to reach the rendezvous point ahead of the dropship. Soon he could see the twin bluish plumes of its primary engines as it swept over the river and circled to land near the western bank. 

He slowed to the point indicated on his navicomputer and ran the beacon recall script for the four submerged mechs. Wakes could be seen as they approached and then they burst through the surface, thrashing the placid river into churning foam with their metal bodies. They then came to a halt under the bright stars of the desert night as rivulets of water continued streaming off of them. 

The dropship was now settling down about 200 meters west and the bright retrorockets and control thrusters were pulsing the night with many hues of light. The ship came roughly to the ground, the impact resounding on the hard-packed desert floor. The main mech hatches began to open and so did the side entrance hatch. Cadence assumed that time was critical and strode towards the mighty ship to stow his mech at the far rear mech bay, giving the main engines a wide berth. He got there as the ramp finished coming down and slowly worked the difficult task of docking his mech with the harness and gantry. He caught sight of the other mechs coming to life and making their way over as he completed the task himself. He climbed down to the dusty desert ground and crossed under the belly of the ship to watch the others. 

His curious mind was well-rewarded for this effort, as he watched, for the first time in his life, a LAM convert before his very eyes. The hideous insectoid monstrosity that was Kith Sivar's custom battlemech/fighter folded and rotated, unfurling the wings and control surfaces in an amazing display of variable geometry. The legs of the mech came alive with a soft orange flame as the aerospace engines and their jump jet components lifted the custom fighter off the ground. The torso twisted 180 degrees as the arms folded and tucked in, revealing VTOL thrusters on the back of the mech which then also activated. The machine pitched 90 degrees towards the ground and began hovering on its VTOL drive as the legs came together and the aerotech fuselage and intakes were revealed. All the rough edges now blended together gracefully and seamlessly into the dagger-shape of the fightercraft. The elegant and deadly craft yawed a few degrees and hovered over to the portside aerospace fighter bay of the dropship. Kith forsook the ramp altogether, as if to proclaim the uselessness of ground to all, as he brought his fighter lightly to rest secure in its hangar. 

Cadence scurried up the ramp to the personnel hatch and made his way to the bridge, frowning slightly at the unconscious man with bound hands lying in the middle of the command deck. He stepped over the man and sat down at the communications console, strapping himself in. 

Just then Kith walked in. He smirked and nodded a greeting, drawing a mirrored expression from the now amused Cadence. Cadence was starting to realize that there was a great deal more to Kith Sivar than the fighter-jock stereotype would suggest, as Kith sat down comfortably at the control station. Not many men could pilot mechs, fighters, and spacecraft as well, and Cadence didn't doubt that that was only the proverbial tip of the iceberg of Kith's abilities. Here was a man to learn from, but be wary of all the same. 

Now the other three strode onboard and took three of the other four chairs on the command deck. Solaria sat to his left greeting him with a smile, which he returned. Vance sat in the Captain's chair to his right, and Zanshin on the far station, but both had grim faces and Cadence realized he wasn't going to be getting much information anytime soon, so he turned his attention to the display in front of him.

I was far too preoccupied with the mission to give Cadence any attention, though he was deserving of praise for his exemplary work. I brought up the tactical screen and although we still had a clear scope, I didn't doubt for a moment that the region would soon be swarming with hostiles. 

"Kith, get us airborne and take off on a northeast heading. Stay low and behind hills if you can, but let's try not to clip any mountains." I joked. 

Kith was not in the least bit amused and responded by slamming the now-hovering ship into a hard portside turn and energizing the mains. Our craft catapulted forwards and the unconscious crewman rolled aft and slammed into the bridge door. Now bearing northeast Kith weaved in and out of narrow valleys, the elephantine vessel making the turns clumsily but adequately. We were airborne nearly two minutes when a pair of conventional fighters burned in from the south and realigned themselves on an intercept vector. Dozens of rockets streaked in and impacted along the keel of the ship, causing minimal damage, but shaking us hard in our seats. 

Kith targeted them with the dorsal weapons blister and fired, cutting the leader down in seconds and firing again at the wingman. The pilot dodged by breaking off and falling to beyond effective weapon range, shadowing us just on the edge of sensors for a few seconds before we realized what he was doing. Cadence spoke up.

"That son of a clanner is ghosting us! He's giving our position to every loyalist on the planet! I can't decrypt his communications but he's gotta be!" Cadence pounded his fist on the console and cursed in a language I was unfamiliar with. Kith unbuckled and leapt from his seat suddenly.

"I'll take him. I put the ship on autopilot. One of you will have to man the weapons."

So shocked was I, that I didn't have time to command him to come back or do anything else. It annoyed me to no end to not have made the decision myself, even if I agreed with it. He was off the bridge before any of us could raise protest. I motioned for Solaria to take the seat and she reluctantly unbuckled and made her way to the station, gingerly touching the controls and keeping her hands far from the dropship yoke. 

Three agonizing minutes later, Kith came on the comm.

"This is Kith, I'm set to launch, pop the portside fighter bay open and hold your course, launching is tricky enough without any maneuvering to compensate for."

Solaria, who wasn't even beginning to think about touching the yoke or disengaging the autopilot, ran her right hand over the controls to open the bay, and after one misstep, got the bay open. I watched on the tac-grid as his sleek fightercraft shot from the bay like a dart and closed on the pursuer. The loyalist pilot must have been extremely surprised, and responded by breaking into a hard turn and dive while moving to flank speed, with Kith hot in pursuit like a peregrine diving on a sparrow. Compared to aerospace fighters, conventional atmospheric craft were cheap and flimsy, with weak armor and weaponry, but usually far quicker and maneuverable. However, in this case Kith had every advantage by virtue of technology and power. I watched in amazement as the two birds dove into a narrow canyon and disappeared from scope, Kith gaining rapidly in the final seconds. 

"Looks like we have some new contacts bearing in sir," called Kith over a rather static filled comm frequency. He was probably getting some interference from the canyon and surroundings. 

"Solaria, get that weapons firing control figured out just in case anyone gets within range," I said. "but lets let Kith do the work. I don't want to risk altering our course." She responded with a quick affirmative and carefully brought up the system and worked it with her right hand. Dedicated gunnery officers usually ran dropship fire control systems, but none of us were sure how to set that up right now, having only seen Kith work the controls from the station a few minutes earlier. Later we would learn that Cadence could have managed that portion of the system from the other pilot chair beside Solaria, but for now we were in the dark. The gloom of the desert night seemed to reach into our artificially lit command room and increase our confusion at our unfamiliar surroundings. 

About a minute later Kith reappeared on radar, and came hurtling towards us. We felt the ship sway slightly with his fighter entering the bay before the autonav system corrected for the new load. He paced through the bridge doors a minute later and relieved Solaria of her position at the helm. 

"I seen no sign of pursuers Kith, looks like you drove them off," I stated simply. 

"Yeah, but he got away alive. So did the other two who were pursuing, I'm a little puzzled at their reaction, sir. But we're clear."

There wasn't much more we could do except get off their search vector and then work on doubling back to the Poseidon. We had some other items of business, such as the captives and bodies onboard, and after a quick discussion we came to a conclusion and found a small sub-polar village of perhaps several hundred residents to ditch our human cargo, living or otherwise. 

The locals had come outside in the dark night, awoken by our massive vessel and it's roaring engines. We couldn't see the stares and expressions on their groggy faces but it must have been a night to remember for the sleepy hamlet. We set down just outside of town, piled the people and bodies on the ground, left a satchel with a thousand c-bills and some gear and blasted off before anyone could get up the courage to approach us. 

Kith ran nape of the earth all the way to the Poseidon's drop zone and slowed the Leopard down so we didn't surprise them too badly. I ordered Cadence to patch me through on a short range encrypted frequency. 

"This to Leftenant Strovski to Captain Siampa, am currently closing on intercept vector to your position. Do you copy?" The speaker was quiet for several long moments before I got a response.

"Alvaria here. Good to hear you're enroute Leftenant. Did you manage to achieve your mission objectives?"

"Affirmative Captain. We have a new ride for you here." I looked at my lance and grinned, eliciting smiles in return. 

"Then don't bother to set down Leftenant. You are needed immediately at the firebase battle. Alpha lance is pinned down and is under heavy enemy fire. I was called to come evacuate them but will not be able to get airborne for thirty minutes." I heard Zanshin swear in Kuritan and Solaria sigh audibly. We certainly didn't need a toe-to-toe pitched battle with a lance of heavies, and we had been up all night, but there was no choice in the matter. 

"Affirmative Captain, we will head there immediately. Send us an upload of navigational data and send a coded message to Alpha lance that we're coming, and in an enemy dropship so our IFF transponder will show us as a hostile. We don't need to get shot down by our own troops." Ideas swirled in my head… Broadcasting on an enemy IFF frequency would show us as a friendly to the opposing mechs, even if they _had_ been informed about the dropship seizure. If they hadn't, they would assume we were reinforcements and we could get in a few cheap shots in the ensuing confusion…

"Wait, Alvaria, tell Alpha to fire _at_ us, but not hit, or only with minor weaponry, just enough to make it convincing that we are not Grenadiers. That could be used against the loyalists pretty effectively." Kith turned in his seat and gave me an evil grin. I could tell immediately that this idea was very much to his liking. 

"Good idea, Leftenant. I will send that message. You have about ten minutes flight time. Good luck." I heard Kith mumble out of the side of his mouth 'eight' as he veered the ship to starboard and pushed us to full throttle. 

"Alright mechwarriors. Get to your mechs and power up. Turn off your IFF transponder until they figure out the ruse, and concentrate all firepower on the flanking mechs and then get clear to the side. Kith and I will stay onboard and strafe them. Try to pick off whichever mechs we damage the heaviest in the first pass. Kith, are you going to be able to operate port and starboard weapons simultaneously?" I asked amongst my flurry of instructions. 

"No, not while flying at the same time, here," he said as he reached over with his left hand, taking the yoke in his right, as he brought the co-pilot gunnery terminal to life, his hand flying over the controls deftly, "use this station, it's the gunner station. I'll control the fore, port, and dorsal cannons, you can control starboard, aft, and ventral weapons."

I stood and moved to the station. Zanshin, Cadence and Solaria had already moved to the bridge door but halted when I called out.

"Team, this is going to be a big battle, but remember the objectives, distract and flank them to help Alpha get out from cover, but do not try to fight toe-to-toe with these heavies. Hit and fade, then back up Alpha and take orders from the Colonel, alright?" Good pep talk. Zanshin looked eager. 

"Yes sir, we'll finish this up quickly" affirmed Zanshin. Solaria looked at Cadence, who had a grim look and then at me and nodded. His light Raven was not in it's element doing close-quarters combat with heavy mechs, and I could bet he'd be travelling at top speed the whole time. 

They turned and exited the bridge, and Kith got down to giving me a crash course on the weapons terminal. I'm a quick study when it comes to fire control systems, and I felt pretty confident by the time were were closing on the battlefield. Kith retracted the foreward bridge blast shield and we got our first glimpse of the firefight raging before us. 

Alpha and Echo lances were in the middle of a deep valley which was steep on the eastern edge from which we were approaching, but more weathered and rounded on the western edge, where five heavy loyalist mechs were camped out. The opposing forces were outside of effective weapon range of all but LRMs and PPCs, and at extreme range for even those. The Grenadiers would have to cross a killing field with no cover to reach the entrenched loyalist positions, or come under lengthy long-range assault if they tried to backtrack and climb back up the steep cliff. Either plan would lead to the loss of several mechs, so the call for dropship fire support would have been the only way out without casualties. 

As we closed the distance rapidly I saw Kith pop the mech bay doors and prepare to make his strafing run. After the shock of the first pass we'd have precious little time to unload Bravo under enemy fire, but hopefully the enemy had not yet been informed of the capture of our new vessel. Alpha and the enemy mechs were exchanging flurries of PPC fire when we roared over the cliff face and into range, quieting their engagement briefly before brilliant green laser bursts began reaching up to meet us from Alpha and Echo lances on the ground. Mostly ineffectual light and medium laser fire touched our ship, the bulk of it blinking harmlessly by but lighting the night spectacularly. In the scattered light I caught sight of the enemy Warhammer, possibly the same one from the first fight, waving or motioning with it's left-hand cannon. _Suckers._

"NOW!" shouted Kith as his right hand worked the weapon controls. He banked the ship slightly to allow the dorsal weapons to bear north with the starboard guns and let loose with the full fury of the ship's weaponry. I lagged behind, selecting the flanking enemy Rifleman for a target, and fired my weapons as well. The fullisades knocked the enemy mechwarriors down amidst a flurry of explosions and debris. Kith kept his guns hot as we shot overhead, training his guns on the Axeman now as it scattered for cover. The enemy Warhammer was the only one to react in time, pulsing two searing PPC blasts into our fuselage that rocked the ship. Bravo team let loose with a full barrage out the open mech bay doors and the damage they did was considerable. 

I lurched forward in my seat as Kith banked and brought us in for a hot landing about 300 meters northwest of the enemy mechs. He managed to continue firing his weaponry the whole time, forcing the loyalists to keep their heads down while Bravo team unloaded and swept north. 

Suddenly a hail of rockets and shells rained down on our position as the enemy lance recovered and focused fire on our stolen Leopard. The ship rocked under the successive blasts and Kith worked to get us airborne as quickly as possible. With my guns not in a useful firing arc, I fixed my attention on the external cameras to see the progress of Bravo lance. It took me several seconds to switch the cameras to light amplification so I could see in the black night beyond our vessel. 

Solaria and Zanshin were firing all their weaponry at the Catapult that Kith had knocked down earlier, and as the mech turned to flee the beam of Solaria's PPC cut into and through its cockpit. The mech crashed headlong into the dune at it's feet, sending grains of desert sand up in a dense cloud. 

Kith worked the controls furiously and brought the Leopard into the air again as lasers and rockets rocked the vessel and sent our answering fire astray. I focused my reticle on the Warhammer, which seemed to be the commander, as Kith sent us back on our approach vector. Suddenly I was thrown hard against my restraints as the 'Hammer hit us again with a dual PPC blast. Klaxons sounded and the bridge lights flickered as we listed violently to port and started losing altitude. My display screamed a dozen alerts at me that I couldn't interpret. 

"We just lost all lateral thruster controls! Damn he's good!" swore Kith as we headed for the edge of the cliff and the northernmost enemy mech. We would almost clip him… suddenly I realized with a horror that the enemy Axeman had us exactly where he wanted us…

"Kith! Evade the Axeman now!" I shouted above the battle sirens and warning alerts. 

But it was too late, as our momentum had taken us on our course and at just the right altitude for the Axeman to capitalize on. Like Zanshin's Hatchetman, it wielded a huge titanium blade in its right hand, only the Axeman was half-again the weight of a Hatchetman. The pilot took two steps and lifted the axe high above his head with both arms, then brought the axe down our portside engine mount. I was thrown again hard in my seat from the impact and winced at the wrenching wail of the spine of the ship being wracked and warped. Kith lost all control and before we could respond the ship hurtled down into the valley and plowed into the ground, leaving a hundred-meter long trench of melted glass and debris. 

Kith, swearing violently, worked to cutoff the engines and stabilize the now-beached vessel. Emergency venting was hissing all around us and we had depressurized the cabin in the crash. Meanwhile the klaxons continued and I shouted to Kith over the din.

"I'm going out there, you lock this down and get your fighter clear when you can, don't be long." 

He nodded and I sprinted from the room and down the corridor to my mech bay. I mounted Eltanin and rushed the startup process. Luckily we were far enough away and out of line of sight to the enemy mechs, so I wasn't under fire. I impatiently slammed on my tac grid to come to life to report on the status of the battle. Had Alpha and Echo lances taken the chance to get out of the valley and joined with Bravo? What was going on out there? 

Finally the screens came to life and I burst from my mech harness and leapt off the ship, feeling it sway underneath me. Seeing little but blackness outside I switched to my light amplification module and continued on my course. I broke into a run and brought up the radar and assessed the situation.

Alpha and Echo lances had indeed broken away and climbed the wall, and were close to joining battle with the loyalists. Bravo was north of them and fighting closely with one enemy contact. I crested the rise just in time to get my first sight of the night combat. 

Zanshin was right on the Axeman, and ducked a terrific swipe of the other mech's massive blade. The Axeman was smoking and nearly glowing from his wounds, but that made him appear all the fiercer. Zanshin's shoulder-mounted autocannon lit the night brightly as it raked the ethereal giant's chest, knocking him off-balance and preventing a second swipe. Just then in streaked Solaria's LRMs, striking him all over the left side. The Axeman then fired his cannon, blasting Zanshin's left hip and nearly severing it. This seemed to enrage Zanshin all the more who advanced on the larger Axeman and furiously rammed it head on. The massive machine tottered for a brief moment before crashing to its back with arms splayed. The Axeman raised his axe in defense against Zanshin as he advanced another step and brought his hatchet across to knock the axe aside, and then down with both hands, cutting completely through the now outstretched arm and into the chest of the mech. 

The cockpit seal popped and blew as the pilot ejected rearward in a low arc, abandoning his now useless mech. Zanshin leapt his Hatchetman to his feet and grabbed the axe, taking off at a run, and none too soon as the Axeman's self-destruct went off, vaporizing the remnants of the mighty machine. 

I reached the battlefield just then and my mechwarriors turned to face me. Zanshin's mech looked positively menacing holding the duel melee weapons, silhouetted by flaming backdrop of the burning Axeman behind him. 

"Two down sir, three to go," he rumbled into his comm, "but my hip joint is damaged, I'm not going to be able to make top speed." 

"Alright team, good work so far, lets give Alpha some covering fire now."

We skirted the burning wreckage of the Axeman and topped the hill, giving us a clear vantage point on the situation on the top of the plateau. The Warhammer was still standing, backpedaling westward while keeping up a steady barrage of PPC blasts. The Rifleman was crouched behind a boulder, bracing it's quadruple cannons on the boulder like a machine gunner and chattering off a steady stream of high explosive ammunition towards Alpha lance, raking the entire team as they advanced. 

The last enemy mech was unidentifiable, so mangled was it, and caught in the half-moon crossfire of the heavy Alpha lance. Sara's PPC blasts reached it in tandem with heavy lasers from Terrance's Shadow Hawk and it blew apart in a smoldering cloud of gas and burning fluids. 

"All units engage the Warhammer, Zanshin, I'll leave it to you to turn off that lead hose." I quipped, meaning the Rifleman. 

Solaria and I broke into a run, with Cadence skirting far around and behind and moving at nearly unsafe velocities. I saw the Warhammer's PPCs lance out and strike Kellie's Thunderbolt, knocking her flat on her back, off-balanced as she was from the Rifleman's fullisade. The Rifleman turned his cannons on Terrance now as fire from Alpha struck all around him and shattered his cover. 

Zanshin though, should have been his target, as suddenly the Rifleman realized the Hatchetman was nearly on him and swung to face his attacker. Zanshin chose that moment to activate his mech's searchlight directly on his quarry, blinding him, and realizing that he would not close the distance to the mech in time, reached back with both hands and flung the dual blades into the night air. The weapons hurtled end over end and the hatchet glanced harmlessly aside, but the axe struck home and the keen edge bit deeply into the Rifleman's chest, down into the ammo bins, and the mech blew in half from the explosion that followed. 

The Warhammer was now at a full run, having let off one last series of blasts and turned. Our lasers and PPCs found his backside and dug deep scars. He couldn't outrun us all, and I thought for sure that we had him when my threat indicator screamed at me. I checked the scope and caught a brief glimpse of four enemy fighters closing at top speed. Before I could utter a command, they were on us. 

They must have been called in by the loyalists to bomb Alpha lance while they were pinned down. Suddenly it made sense to me why those fighters had disengaged with us so suddenly half an hour earlier. They had been recalled here for a bombing run. All this flashed through my mind in the split second before the bombs dropped all around us. Luckily, they were dumb-bombs and not very accurate, but all the same I took one to the right shoulder and found myself laying on the ground with gravel and sand raining down on me from the dozens of blasts all around. Cadence was the only one who returned fire, lighting up the one that lagged behind and destroying it in midair by hitting the bomb rack. 

I checked my damage assessment and saw that it was bad, but my arm was still functional. Alpha lance was scattered on the ground and a few columns of smoke were climbing into the dark sky. The fighters swung around for a second pass but instead made for the dropship. 

Here they met a rude surprise. Kith leapt up to meet them, his custom LAM boring straight for the leader with PPCs ablaze. The wingmen maintained course as their leader disintegrated, Kith blasting nearly through the debris cloud and climbing high to swing in behind. The other two pilots kept remarkable discipline as they made their bombing run without changing heading, despite the predator closing in. I watched in dismay as the bombs struck home on the Leopard, completely obliterating the ship as the hydrogen fuel cells ignited and took the Leopard and its surrounding earth up to heaven on a pyre of light and vapor. 

The enemy fighters, now relieved of their bomb load, shot off for parts unknown as Kith pursued at top speed. Within seconds they were nearly over the horizon and out of radar range. 

I checked the scope for the Warhammer. He had escaped us in the chaos the fighters had created. Escaped us again, I realized. I secretly wished the Leopard hadn't been demolished so that I could have checked the records to discover who he was, as he was obviously no rookie pilot. But I also was secretly thankful that the Leopard, and any evidence on it, was now vaporized. 

"Bravo lance, report your status." I commanded into my mic. 

"Cadence here, undamaged," he reported. 

"I have to find my hatchet, and have to limp, but I'm okay," called Zanshin.

Silence. 

"Solaria?" I scanned the area… _where was she?_ I found her Griffin facedown a hundred meters behind me, smoke rising from its back and shoulder. The missile rack was crushed and laying to the side. 

"Solaria, do you copy?" I heard the comm finally respond and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I… I'm here sir. I'm in the red pretty much everywhere," she responded with a shaking voice. 

The Colonel came on the comm just then. 

"Vance, that was a helluva nice job with the Leopard. Do you have the Warhammer on scope?"

"No sir, he's gone."

"Frag. What's your lance status?"

"Zanshin disabled and Solaria crippled, but all pilots accounted for."

"Alright, Alvaria will be here in fifteen minutes, we're going to salvage what we can and get the frag out of here. I want you and Cadence on perimeter patrol while I clean up here." 

"Yessir. Cadence, let's scout west and try to locate that Hammer."

We spent the next few hours providing a roving patrol. Alvaria was down before we even got to the perimeter but there was a lot of salvage to take care of and I soon lost count of the number of times we circled the Poseidon's drop zone. About an hour into it Kith returned, his fighter looking a little worse for the wear, with dozens of hits on it. He trailed smoke as he soared overhead but I didn't get on the comm to ask him anything. I got the chance to practice some good detail scouting with Cadence, and discovered how thorough and good he was at it. We had started developing a complicated series of hand signals and gestures to avoid using the comm when we were recalled to the ship. 

I made my way up the ramp and loaded Eltanin into the mech bay. It wasn't until I got out that I realized how bad the bombing run had hit us. Alpha lance was blasted and blackened, and missing weapons and limbs here and there. Kellie's Thunderbolt was lying on the floor sans the left leg, and Sara's new Uziel was minus its missile launcher. Cadence and I were the only two operational mechs most likely. Had the Warhammer returned with us on patrol, it may have been the end of the Grenadiers. 

Cadence was already down and waiting for me at Eltanin's feet. His expression matched my attitude as I drew out a smoke and lit up. He tilted his head and smiled a bit.

"Sir, we really need to find an easier assignment." 

We both laughed and made our way for the debriefing. The ship shuddered underneath us as the main drives came online and techs scurried to secure all the mechs and spare parts with myomer cinches. We weren't quite to the lift when the launch warning sounded so we just grabbed a nearby handhold and waited it out. Once fully airborne we continued to the SitRep room and admitted ourselves. 

The warriors looked weary and dazed. Cadence, having had some sleep, and me with my adrenal injecting medipack, were both bright and alert. This seemed to annoy the others somewhat. I noticed that Kellie and Solaria were absent, and Terrance's head was bandaged. Sara's shoulder wound showed signs of new bleeding. 

We took our seats and the debriefing began. 

"First off, we all owe Vance and his team for the rescue tonight. I think we all know what the result would have been had they not showed up just then. Vance, you'll be getting a fat bonus off of this one. We're heading for nav Rho now to do some repair work. Oh, and Solaria is fine. She's having her shoulder operated on right now and has a minor concussion as well."

I nodded and Cadence breathed a sigh of relief. I shot him a quizzical look and then returned my attention to the Colonel. 

"Why don't you fill us in on your side of the op and include any relevant details."

So I launched into the story, the heavy lance we encountered, how we tricked them, the highway heist, the inflitration of the airfield and our capture by the Wasps, and then a carefully crafted version of my escape and seizure of the dropship. Kith interjected occasional comments about the enemy's fighting prowess and organizational methods. I mentioned about the 'Baron', but not his full name and about how we fled with the ship and dumped the bodies near the pole. 

Then the Colonel filled me in on his side of it, how they had engaged and tracked the Warhammer, which had then led them into the trap in the valley after a long chase through the desert canyons. I interrupted and mused aloud.

"Whoever that Warhammer is, he is very good." All eyes came to me. "He escaped the first encounter, then lured you into the bombing trap, he was the one who knocked Kith and I out of the sky by hitting us precisely on our lateral thrusters, and I don't think I saw him miss once in that whole firefight." All eyes were getting wider and eyebrows going up as they all recalled the accuracy and realized that I was right. 

"What's more, did you notice that he could make better speed than your average Warhammer? And that he had clan PPCs mounted? He's modified that thing very heavily. That doesn't sound like a rebel to me. He's a professional, whoever he is."

I knew I had to be right. He was a mercenary or infiltrator. Had to be. Commander or not, he was a pro. Terrance cut in. 

"S'right. And did you see how his ride didn't match the others? They's all gray and he's got his done up all in hoity toity arctic camoflauge, like he didn't have time to repaint it." He gave me an approving nod. That got me thinking

"Who has time and money enough to bring a modified clan-teched Warhammer from some mission on an ice planet, a pro, to this rock to command a bunch of rebels loyal to Steiner?" I asked. 

Just then Cadence piped in for the first time.

"Well, when I was waiting for the rest of Bravo at the river, I sliced their comm frequency and listened in, I recorded the entire conversation. It's about two hours worth of chatter. One of them was an academy graduate and the rest of them were newbies. What if they brought in one elite lance and split them up to command all the various rebel lances?" _Nice thinking kid. Glad you're on my team._ The Colonel concluded the discussion.

"Alright, Cadence I want you to get that tape with the intel people ASAP. Kurato, see what you can pick out of it." At this he gestured to the Recon element leader, who would have also been assigned to intel. A nod was all that he responded with. 

"For now, we repair our machines and get some rest. Vance, you and Kith are on standby. I want you to take first shift out patrolling and Kith you be ready to launch if we get any enemy contacts."

Kith and I met eyes, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing. _No rest for the weary._ And as the dropship set down in the rugged polar terrain, I realized that this long night was about to get a whole lot longer. I noticed my pack of cigarettes was nearly empty. _This is going to be a very, very long night…_


	8. Black's Rebuttal

**[CHAPTER 6 – "Black's Rebuttal": Eaton: April, 3061]**

I felt the cool breeze flutter over my body as I looked off to the distant starry horizon. I had Eltanin's running lights down to a minimum and the searchlight off so I could adjust my eyes to the darkness. The desert night was cold and deep, like a great black ocean, except much quieter. 

After two hours of patrolling the canyon and perimeter I had staked out a number of good observation points that overlooked the most likely approach routes. This spot was probably the best of them all, with a tight enclave for a mech to rest in while crouched behind so I could stand on the top of it with just enough clearance to get a clear view all around. 

I brought my rangefinder binoculars back up and looked to the tallest peak to the south. A valley led from the base of the peak nearly to our location and it seemed a vulnerable avenue of approach. On the other side of the eastern ridge of the valley, however, was a narrow and steep canyon, which had possibly once boasted running water, which would make a very good stealth route. I lowered the binoculars and prepared to remount my mech.

A flash of light caught my eye suddenly and I snapped back to search for it. There. Right in the valley something was moving and I could see running lights. Then they all went black again. I swung into the cockpit and landed heavily in the command couch, strapping in and closing the hatch all in one motion. 

I bade Eltanin to stand fully upright and engaged my night scope, making a quick check to ensure my radar was off. Scanning the valley visually, I soon noticed the culprits. A column of tanks, four in view, was crawling through the dust and dirt, nearly obscured by the ridgeline. They looked like heavy tanks, but weren't Demolishers. I didn't recognize the design anyhow. I pulled up a target recognition table on my tac-grid and failed to find a good match. Each were driven by ten large wheels and mounted two rather large cannons on what seemed to be a central turret. They looked like modified troop carriers of some sort. Whatever they were doing here, we could assume they weren't friendly. I keyed my mic and checked in.

"Vance here. I've got four possible bandits on scope bearing 230 from your position at a range of about 20 clicks. Armor assets of some sort. Please advise." The comm was silent for a while before Terrance's voice came on.

"Right Vance. Kurato is sending a scout to check that out. Me, Huntress, and Diane are mostly repaired and will join you in the field in about ten minutes, so sit tight. Oh, here's Kurato."  
"Good evening, Leftenant. Can you give me more details on the approaching enemy?" 

"I don't recognize the design. Looks like a wheeled tank or artillery piece of some sort. They have massive cannons on them, here, I'm patching the view in, sorry for the resolution." I worked my command computer to send a visual link to the ship then. 

"Most curious. I must speak with the Colonel. Also, I am finished with Cadence and am releasing him back to patrol. Kurato out." 

I chuckled to myself. He didn't mince words much. I turned my attention back to the vehicles and followed their progress as best I could, counting two more of the same type. After a few minutes I got a sitrep from the recon element.

"This is recon five, I have visual on the armor. I count six artillery pieces. Looks like Leftenant Strovski is right. They are just below the ridgeline out of sight at times but are definitely closing on our position."

Just then the Colonel came on the comm.

"Vance, I want you to join Echo lance and Terrance who are heading your way. Run passive. Leftenant Jalastar will lead this raid. Huntress, you need to take out those pieces before they fire on our staging grounds. Lets hope they don't have our position marked yet because they are probably within range. Get out there and eliminate them asap." 

I knew Leftenant Paula Jalastar was more experienced and probably skilled, but I still felt like a stallion tethered to an oxen. Happy to operate independently, but taking orders from someone the same rank as me was not my idea of a good time. I swallowed my pride and walked down the hill to meet Echo lance. 

Huntress's Catapult was looking tarnished from the bombing run, but without or without scars a Catapult was a solid mech. They boasted excellent fire control systems and thick armor. Huntress has modified hers in a brilliant manner, having moved the Arrow IV artillery piece to the opposite shoulder and placed a fake Arrow piece where it was normally mounted, complete with fake steel missiles and the works, while the real system was hidden behind a missile rack door. 

Diane Lawson in her new Locust seemed to huddle behind Huntress a bit. She didn't seem to like being in such a small and weak machine and noticing the slight limp, I recalled Solaria's shot to the leg that had won us this mech in the first engagement on planet. 

Terrance, who went by the call sign Vigilante, seemed to itch under Huntress's command just like me in his Shadow Hawk, trying to stay shoulder to shoulder and not fall behind his leader. Huntress was ignoring the insinuation and I fell in behind and matched speeds as we pounded our way through the valley. A klick or two off it would turn and then we could close on and engage the armor. Terrance cleared his throat audibly on the comm and spoke.

"Huntress, shouldn't we send Diane up to spot for your Arrow?"

"Not yet Terrance. We're not even sure these tanks are carrying artillery pieces. They haven't fired yet and they're well within range. If those cannons turn out to be Gauss rifles Diane won't last ten seconds against the armor."

__

Damn good point, I mused. She had a killer instinct, to be sure. I didn't feel half as bad about following anymore, since she definitely knew her job well. We were probably about four klicks from the armored column now and would have them in visual range in a minute or two when we rounded the bend in the valley. 

"Alright then, what's our friggin' game plan?" asked Terrance, with a disrespectful tone.

"We close and destroy them, as ordered," she replied. I decided to jump in at this point. 

"Leftenant, what kind of artillery weapon might they be carrying? They're only eight klicks from the dropship zone now. Doesn't a Long Tom have better range than that?" 

"Much better. That's what I don't get. And we still haven't found their spotter, which they would have to have to get the exact telemetric data. It would probably be a light hovercraft or chopper, but so far we haven't seen it."

Spotter. _Another damn good point. Of course. How could they direct the salvoes without a spotter? _But the recon personnel were circled around the dropship at small intervals, so it hadn't gotten through. Odds are, it was just too small of a vehicle to be seen and was still hugging the ridgeline tight enough to stay hidden. But we were almost upon them and would soon find out.

We started hugging the ridgeline ourselves single file as we started making the turn, radar and running lights off. We were navigating by sight and night vision, and as we moved, I caught sight of the lead vehicle ahead, closer than anticipated. It looked a lot more like a large APC from the front angle, but the two massive cannons on top set it apart from any APC I'd ever seen. 

"That's it team, close and engage! Vance, flank right and catch any runners while you fire, Terrance, dive straight in, Diane, spot the middle one for me as soon as you can," shouted Huntress. 

I pushed Eltanin to top speed and broke formation as we fanned out to engage. Still they seemed to not have noticed us and I waited for a reaction before firing. Within PPC range but I held fire… held it… held it… every second counted. 

A rumble sounded and I watched Huntress's Arrow IV missile guide in on a bright jet of orange fire for the center of the column. Terrance opened fire with lasers and autocannon, chewing up the line and filling the night with screaming energy and shells. I lined up my shot on the leader just as Huntress's missile struck home. The fireball seemed to completely engulf the middle three vehicles as I depressed the trigger. 

The dark night suddenly illuminated by orange flame was now lit by my blue particle projection cannon as I vaporized the two massive cannons on top of the lead vehicle. The remnants crumbled into fragments as the blast passed completely through them unhindered and just then my stomach completely bottomed out. I slammed my hand on the console and shouted. 

"SHIT! We've been had! Those cannons aren't real!"

We all came to a dead stop as the realization dawned on us. The final vehicle bringing up the rear continued to drive straight ahead and crashed into the burning wreckage of the fifth. _Decoys! _

"Son of a…! Lance form up now, we need to return to base! Command this is Huntress, the tanks are decoys, repeat decoys!"

"Are you sure Huntress?" called the Colonel.

"Yessir! They didn't evade, they just blew up like clay pigeons. The dropship is in immediate danger! Diane, you run ahead and help defend and spot for me." She was right… _Why divert a lance if you're not planning an attack? _We had precious little time. I pushed Eltanin to top speed and worked to catch up to the others as we made our way back. They were several hundred meters ahead of me due to my flanking move and I started to climb a ridge to take a shortcut, using my knowledge of the terrain to my advantage. I barely felt the sting to my thigh as my medipack shot me up with battle juice. 

At the apex of the ridge, I froze. Five klicks southeast, a mech was perched on top of the ridge, just like me. A mech I had never seen before and could not identify. It was small, short and squat, with reverse legs like a Catapult. As I watched it, I knew we had both crested our ridges at the same time and that he saw me as well. Then he leapt forward and dissappeared into the valley before him, out of my sight. 

"Command, this is Vance, I just saw a mech drop into the valley near your position, he is less than 2 klicks from the dropship, unknown type."

"Confirmed Leftenant. The scouts just saw him too. There's got to be more of them out there." 

__

Piss. How had they found us? The dropship staging ground was littered with our damaged mechs, various components and salvage, and our company's vehicles and personnel. The dropship could probably hold it's own against a handful of mechs for a time. Unfortunately, all it took was a few lucky shots to ruin some vital system and then we'd be stranded on this rock, fighting a static defensive battle against overwhelming numbers of enemy troops while we tried to fix the critical component. And right now, only Kith and Cadence were operational to defend. We needed to hurry. 

I finally caught up to Huntress and Terrance and realized I knew a shortcut from our location. 

"Follow me, this route is quicker." I called out and broke for a heading just south of the dropship. We could perhaps come in behind them. 

Ahead of us the night sky brightened as battle was joined. It frustrated me to not see it as I pounded my way down the valley. Soon though, the Colonel satisfied my curiosity. 

"Echo lance, we are engaging one lance of hostiles at our base of operations, Thunderbolt, Phoenix Hawk, Hunchback, and a Crab plus one more unknown. Concentrate fire! Echo we need you here now!"

Just then Diane came in on the channel. 

"I'm in range, spotting for the Arrow…" she excitedly announced.

Huntress tilted and lofted a missile high into the sky, and I lost sight of it as it arced down behind the wall ahead of us and brightly lit the night ahead of us. We ran on, pushing our mechs to top speed and squeezing just a little more out, Huntress lagging behind to occasionally tilt and launch another missile. 

I hit the slope at a full run, nearly losing my balance and clawed my way to the top. Terrance was right behind me and we crested the ridge together and ran headlong into the firefight raging below. 

The enemy Thunderbolt fired a rack of missiles as we closed on it, swarming Diane's locust with concussions and she punched out a split second before the machine blew apart beneath her, taking several light vehicles with it. I cursed as I aimed and fired off my own missiles, striking him all over the chest and then aligned my PPC and added the massive blast to his chest wounds. Terrance joined me with his chattering autocannon and lasers, knocking the enemy mech back several steps. 

A blinding laser blast struck me in the shoulder just then from across the burning wreckage of our staging grounds, but I ignored the shot as Terrance and I closed on the now backpedaling Thunderbolt. He leveled his launcher at me and my threat radar screamed at me as the rockets leapt up to ruin the armor all over my left side. _Hellfire. Die you rebel piece of…_

I fired again in tandem with Terrance, our beams crisscrossing and opening the Thunderbolt's chest up, and it flashed brightly as the ammo bin overheated and blew. The mech fell to the ground in a burning wreck as we reached it, flames and heat washing over us as we split and flowed around our downed quarry. 

We passed through the raging inferno of our burning supply vehicles and stepped over various salvage pieces on our way. The enemy Hunchback was crushed and legless in the center of it all, and we ran past the wreckage, intent on the three remaining enemy mechs. An Arrow cruised by us and struck the enemy Crab in the left thigh as it fired its lasers at me. My mech was thrown off balance as his lasers struck my arm and in my concentration to keep from falling, I missed the result of the Arrow, but as I realigned and aimed on him, I saw him crash to the ground from the blast. His leg was mangled and torn. 

He seemed to look up and reached outwards with both arms, filling the valley with laser fire at all of us as Terrance, Kith and I concentrated fire on him. 

He didn't eject when his mech blew, instead he jerked forward attempting to grab Kith's LAM. Kith evaded but as the Crab erupted in a massive fireball it threw Kith's machine downhill onto the ground. I turned to face the two remaining mechs who stood uphill of us, the Phoenix Hawk and the short squat mech. 

Terrance and I opened up, but hit only air as the two mechs burst skyward and backwards on jump jets. I aimed and locked my missiles on the smaller one and fired, watching with a grin as they soared in. _Pull._ I thought with a smile, which disappeared as he abruptly shot his side jets and the entire flight of missiles flew right past him. _Frag. _Terrance was similarly unsuccessful and before we could get off a second shot, they were behind the ridge. 

"Echo lance, pursue now," commanded the Colonel over the comm, "I want their heads." I wanted their heads too. Partially I was pissed that they had duped us in the first place, but I was also mad about the mess they had made of all our equipment. Terrance and I were starting up the hill when Huntress yelled into the comm.

"Negative! Do not pursue! They are trying to lead us off again!"

"And why would they do that?" asked the Colonel, with a tone of great annoyance.

"I don't know but they are definitely baiting us again."

Cadence appeared from out of nowhere, his Raven completely untouched, near the top of the hill as he came on the comm.

"I know why. There are three inbound enemy bombers bearing 182." _Oh bloody hell. _

"Echo, you get on the south ridge and shoot them down! We're sitting ducks like this and there is still an awful lot of good equipment down there we could recover. Kith, get airborne now and bring them down!" commanded the Colonel, now sounding absolutely livid. 

Kith worked to transform his mech as the rest of us got into position and they showed up on our radar just as Kith took to the sky like a bird of prey. The bombers screamed in as we sent a hail of rockets and energy fire their way, nicely masking Kith's advance. Two of them were burning before Kith even fired on the now-smoking leader, blowing the craft into fragments. The undamaged one dove and veered off the bombing run as the other damaged bomber struggled to turn and gain altitude. I sighted in and snapped off a quick shot and was delighted to see my PPC beam snip it in the tail and ruin it's rudder. 

The enemy bomber crashed headlong into the canyon as we turned our fire on the last fleeing target and we all scored several hits as it smoked and exploded, the remains hurtling end over end out of sight to explode in some lonely valley. 

I checked my damage indicator. Right shoulder damaged, right arm nearly destroyed, left side thrashed up, and a few rocket hits to the legs as well. This would take some work. Cadence was undamaged, Terrance and Huntress almost undamaged, but Kith's fighter didn't look very good. He had taken a lot of hits holding them off it seemed. Diane had lost her newly acquired Locust as well. _The fortunes of war rise and fall…_I did a scan of the ground and saw the pieces of Kellie's Thunderbolt declaring its fate as well. I hoped the enemy Thunderbolt would yield enough salvage to repair hers. 

__

"Excellent work team. We're gonna need to relocate yet again though. All mechs fall back for repair while we load as much as we can save into the dropship. Get any salvage you can and we'll sort it all out later. Someone look for Diane too." The Colonel sounded very tired, and I could understand why. It was many long hours now into the night and many of us had had no sleep and several engagements. 

I hit the wall just about then as I started to come down from my adrenaline and stimulants. I was blasted tired. The techs were out with the firefighting vehicles and soon doused the worst of it, but I didn't doubt that things would be hot for hours yet. I helped as I could by picking up good salvage pieces and placing them in the dropship, and after my first trip caught sight of Cadence entering the bay with Diane perched on his mech's shoulder. His Raven, without hand acuators, was fairly useless in the cleanup process. He and I went back out to watch the south ridge as the tech crews got to work. We followed the tracks of the two mechs for some distance but turned back before we got too far away. 

Time moved as a blur as we patrolled and assisted as called, but I was past caring at this point and wouldn't have really been too much use against enemy patrols due to my tiredness. It had been well over thirty grueling hours since I had slept and no end was in sight. To pass the time, the other mechwarriors and I conducted a field debriefing over the comm. 

"Its like we thought Vance," remarked Terrance, "They's good alright. Every group has three or four who aren't sure what to do and one leader who's a pro. Cadence had it nailed down last debriefing." Cadence jumped in. 

"And Kurato has been analyzing that recording of their comm log. I don't know what all he's found, but from what I can tell, there are six to eight pros running the resistance. We've made a pretty good dent in their mech capability now, but there's still two or three lances unaccounted for, mostly pros. One assault lance, the warhammer, the two here that got away, and possibly one more that was alluded to." 

"How much do we think they still have for air assets?" I asked, to no one in particular.

"Can't be much now, as we've downed four aerospace fighters and six conventional ones," said Kith, "but really we can't be certain." The comm was silent for a bit then a new question jumped into my head.

"Can anyone ID that lead mech from the last battle? I've never seen one like that. It had impressive jump capability and seemed to have good lasers too." Just then, Kurato came on the comm for the first time.

"That, my friends, was a clan Dragonfly, which we call the Viper." 

Several profane comments followed this newest revelation as the stats and specifications of the Viper were pieced together by some of the veterans. Very good speed, excellent jump capability, and a number of weapons pods made it one of the most versatile mechs I'd heard of. This one had mostly lasers mounted but also a missile rank. More than that, we were unable to be sure of. 

We continued discussing the engagement and reviewing our tactics, which we felt were exemplary minus the trick we had fallen for. Then we noticed a band of light starting to appear on the horizon. Dawn was coming. It had been more than six hours since the fight and still the tech crews worked. We had lost plenty of ammo and one-third of the salvage and workhorse vehicles, but were recovering the rest. My patience was starting to wear thin when the Colonel got on the comm. 

"Alright mechwarriors, load up. We're relocating from this sand-blasted wasteland to someplace even less hospitable. This time we know we won't be found, as Kurato discovered how they found us – a beacon attached to the salvaged Uziel. We've removed it." _Very sneaky of the Uziel pilot. Glad I killed him._ "Get onboard and I'll meet you in the mech bay."

We were grateful to follow the order to return to base and noticed the dropship powering up. The staging ground was mostly clean, save some worthless debris and wreckage, but nearly every good part had been snapped up by the hungry techs. We'd need all that salvage to repair our machines. 

I guided my mech into the bay and docked with the mech harness. I ran the shutdown procedure and climbed down, noting the great rents in my left torso armor and right shoulder damage. It'd need a lot of work to be sure. I leapt to the bay floor and walked to the gathering warriors. 

We all circled around the Colonel as he explained the situation.

"We're dusting off soon and heading for the arctic circle. We're going to repair and rearm for a day or two. We still need to hit that firebase if we want to get paid for that portion of the contract, and the Governor is offering two more missions and will soon have improved recon for us so we can go back on the offensive. For now, you're on call but you can do as you will, which I'm thinking will mean you'll sleep. Good work out there today. Check with the unit financier to check your balances if you're curious what all this risk is getting you in your bankroll. Dismissed."

I stumbled to my quarters and grabbed some cash. Before I could sleep, I had a few things to take care of. As the ship took to the skies I headed to the officers lounge and purchased more cigarettes. I smoked several and ordered a few drinks while I sat back and tried to relax. _Too much combat_. It reminded me of the academy with the long hours and the grueling time in the cockpit, only at the academy it was all just practice and you couldn't really be killed unless you were grossly negligent. The ship soon landed and I was able to set my drink on the table now and kick my chair back. I was musing on my own mortality when Huntress and Diane strolled into the lounge and decided to join me. 

"Leftenant." She nodded and made a pointing motion to the chair. I nodded that I would like company and took a nice long drag, doing them the courtesy of blowing my smoke the other way.

"Can't sleep?" Huntress was to the point. Everything about her was to the point. Simple combat fatigues with interwoven cooling pockets, one sidearm, combat knife, hair pulled back into a short pony tail. She was tall. As tall as me, and in fact her good posture made her appear taller than I, with my aloof slouching demeanor. She was in good shape, as most mechwarriors are, and actually seemed to be far more muscular than most female mechwarriors, sporting an almost stocky build, for a woman. 

"Not without proper amounts of nicotine in my blood, no." I responded. Huntress smirked and Diane smiled. "What about you?"

"We already got some sleep earlier. Plus we need to be down in the mech bay in twenty," she replied. I shot my eyebrows up quizzically and Diane spoke up.

"A: All those good parts we salvaged are really messed up now. We might be lucky to get anything at all out of them, which leads to B: I need to find out if I'm gonna have a new mech or not." She sounded hopeful, but also resigned. Dispossessed mechwarriors had to rely on luck and a good deal of charm to get a new ride as quickly as possible. You made less pay when you didn't own your own mech, but it was still very lucrative. However, if you didn't get a new mech quickly, it was possible you'd be forgotten, and end up in a desk job or doing technician work. Or, even worse, infantry. Huntress nodded and looked at Diane as she mentioned her troubles as well. 

"And now that I've used up all of the Arrow IV ammunition that I had, and the raiders destroyed the rest, I need to change out weapon systems on my Cat, or sit the rest of this mission out. It will take a lot of work. Hence, we need to try to fix the Cat parts we salvaged earlier. But the rebels messed them up good. Damn them." 

I smirked and agreed. We spent the next few minutes discussing the materiel losses and I discovered we had ended up losing quite a bit. Besides the Catapult, most of the parts to the other salvaged mechs were ruined, and our ammunition was now critically low. The good news was that we did earn half of a Hunchback and had managed to avoid personnel casualties altogether. 

After a time we all agreed that we needed to go and I saw them to the lift and then headed to my quarters for some much needed rest. Locking the hatch behind me, I washed up as best I could in the tight cramped space available and then laid out my combat gear for easy access. I reloaded my pistols, and replaced them in my tactical webbing on my flak vest. I forced myself to finish the job, resealing a new package of chloroformed cloth in the airtight plastic pouch and added a few smoke grenades to the vest from my duffel. Then I turned off my medipack and removed it, setting it next to my vest. Finally, exhausted, I collapsed into my bunk. 

As I exhaled purposefully slowly and tried to relax the knot in my back, I realized that I hadn't actually slept in this bunk yet. Last sleep I had gotten was in the medical wing. _Such is the life of a warrior. _Most warriors could go for days without sleep, and fall asleep or wake up in seconds, but I had yet to develop this ability, and so I lay there for many long minutes. I turned the battles over and over in my head, reviewed my actions, berated myself, envisioned myself fighting them again, scoring all head hits and coming away the hero. The rich hero. 

Today I had killed five men or women in cold blood, and helped kill six or seven more, and earned three and a half million c-bills. _So what is that, about 300,000 per person? So that's how much a life is worth. I wonder who'll get paid 300,000 to kill me? _

Dark thoughts led to darker dreams as sleep overtook me. 


	9. Controlling the Angles

**[CHAPTER 7 – "Controlling the Angles": Eaton: April, 3061]**

It was actually cold. Dropships always pulsed with heat like mammoth creatures, even in the empty void of space they were often far too warm. The stale recirculated air was oppressive and hellish. But this air was cold and fresh, with a bite that stung the sinuses. 

I sat up in my bunk and switched on the dim amber lights, revealing the room again just as I'd left it. A quick check to my chrono revealed that I had slept nearly nine hours. I swung my feet over the side and pulled on a fresh shirt as I shivered in the chill air. _Why is it so blasted cold in here?_

To warm up, I started exercising a bit and lost myself in the routine of it all. Many pushups later, a bead of sweat trickled off my forehead and fell to the floor. _Ah, hell. That's enough for now. Maybe they have a real weight machine around here somewhere? _

I staggered to my small aluminum sink and washed up. I even got enough hot water to shave and was soon feeling very good, even with the room as frigid as it was. I pulled on my armor and gear and checked my pistols carefully. _Maybe I won't have to use these today?_

Opening the hatch, I stepped out and glanced side to side before pulling a cigarette and lighting up. It was even colder in the corridor, but I only noticed it on my exposed arms and face. Deciding that breakfast could wait, and hearing no major activity in my area, I headed to the lift and descended to the mech bay. 

The doors opened and harsh bright light met my eyes. Squinting and raising a hand, I stepped into the bay. The main mech doors were wide open, and it was very brisk and very bright outside. The arctic sun burned down brightly. No snow adorned the hellish landscape, which was jagged and blasted and devoid of moisture. 

As my eyes adjusted I scanned the bay for activity. The techs had moved a lot of the salvage outside, but still had the bay littered with projects. I caught sight of the chief tech, Johann Burg, and decided to go introduce myself. He was accompanied by two of the Alpha lance techs and giving some directions regarding what looked to be the arm of a Thunderbolt. Whether the arm had come from Kellie's damaged Thunderbolt or the raider we had destroyed, I couldn't be sure. 

He was a tall man, taller than me by several inches, and his hair was mostly gray, but he looked to be in fine shape for his age. His leathery, worn face was seamed with wrinkles and framed with a beard. He looked out of the side of his eye at me as I approached. 

"Good morning Leftenant. What a fine time you have picked to stop by," he quipped, with a sly smile.  
"How's that?"

In answer, he handed me a two-handed plasma cutter, and the grin on his face grew wider. 

"This arm is mostly scrap, but we need the armor plating, and with you here, we can get it done twice as fast." Without giving me time to respond, he turned and mounted the armorer, a multi-ton tracked vehicle with a magnetic crane, and set the magnetic stabilizers onto the floor of the dropship. 

I looked at the cutter in bewilderment. Mech repair was not my forte. Another tech was beside me then, a man about my height, with red hair, a huge red moustache, a lot of muscles, and a big grin.

"There's nothin' to it lad. Besides, if you don't help, your mech will be the last he fixes." 

I put the cutter down and shook the man's hand. 

"I'm Vance."  
"Lonn. Listen, the armor plating is very structured on these newer Thunderbolts. Practically the perfect mech to practice your cutting skills on. Come on."

He had a slight accent, but he was easy to understand. We climbed atop the limb and he taught me how to fire up the cutter and showed me the armor lines. While donning some goggles and a blast suit he continued to ramble about the armor. Things started to get technical but it was actually interesting work, and soon we were peeling off the armor in a reusable fashion. We got the first piece cut and Johann hoisted it off with the crane. 

I like methodical tasks, and Lonn's constant chatter about the plating, the myomers and actuators made it quite interesting. I had worked up a good sweat between the lifting and the blast suit and after about thirty minutes we jumped off and watched Johann flip the arm so we could finish with the back quarter. It was more than a ton of armor easily we had salvaged, but with the armor stripped off I could see why the arm was not usable. The shoulder joint was blasted to fragments, and the entire upper arm myomer bundle melted. The 'bone' of the mech, a wrapped metal honeycomb-like structure, was blasted to pieces as well. I was taking a closer look at the actual weave of the metal in the bone when Johann came up beside me. 

"Alright Vance. Here's the problem: We've got seven techs, and me, down here total. We've got nine heavily damaged mechs, two of them near useless, and that means about a week's worth of hard work, even considering the thirty-hour days this planet has." 

I didn't like where this was going. 

"The Colonel hasn't ordered it yet, but we're gonna need additional help if we want to be operational quickly." Sales pitch. I was a lance commander, not a tech. Still, knowing the machine inside and out means I'd be that much more effective. I took a drag as I pondered what this meant for my career. High level officers didn't get their hands dirty, but company commanders who were personal with their men certainly did from time to time. Was picking up a welding torch going to set a ceiling on my career? Possibly. 

"Did you manage to salvage Cadence's TAG gear from the Locust?" Johann grimaced and shook his head. 

"There wasn't much left of that thing. Good thing Diane ejected."

"Damn. Not that we can spot for the Arrow anymore, but I wish they hadn't co-oped that TAG. Tell you what, if I get to pick what we mount on the Raven in place of the TAG, I'll have one mechwarrior down here round the clock till repairs are complete."

Johann nodded and we shook on it. Then he headed for the loader. I waved to Lonn and headed for the ramp. He wasn't joking about the state of the mechs. It looked like Kith's LAM was fully repaired, and Cadence's Raven was pristine, but the others were all beat up. Paula's Catapult was in good shape, but only had two Arrow IV missiles remaining. Not combat ready. We had to hope they didn't find us this time. 

As I made it to the ramp I flicked my cigarette butt over the side and inhaled the arctic air deeply. Thin but fresh. We were sitting at the base of a lonely plateau accented by wind-carved rock. I hadn't seen any greenery since our first drop near the Governor's estate. _What a barren planet_. I felt a chill coming on as the sweat evaporated and I decided to head back into the ship. 

I headed to the mess hall and was happy to discover hot food awaiting me there. I frowned at the dozen or so civilians talking loudly about the poor quality of the food and pushed past them to get a meal. They quieted and one of them eyed me curiously. I ignored them, then suddenly realized they were probably the Governor's family. I sat with my back to them. As I sat and ate the intercom came to life and I recognized the Colonel's voice. 

"All mechwarriors and essential personnel report to the briefing room at 1215 hours. I repeat…"

I stood and started making my way to the briefing room, smoking another cigarette hurriedly. I ran into Cadence and greeted him with a nod, which was returned, and we walked into the room and took our seats. The Colonel was there of course, and looked up from the holomap as he greeted us.

"Good morning gentlemen."

The others began filing in then. Alicia and Kith first, then Alpha lance and Kurato, who was probably the only one besides me who looked alert. He was clad entirely in black and carrying various electronic surveilance gear and had a rifle slung on his back. Not just recon leader, also an active scout, I noted. Captain Siampa and my Bravo mechwarriors came in next and finally Echo lance arrived. The Colonel dimmed the lights and started the briefing. I tried to catch Sara's eye but she was speaking with Kellie. 

"Good morning folks. As you know we've relocated to the Arctic circle and are now conducting repairs. Johann has informed me that two mechs are repaired now but much work remains. Complicating our task is the tight deadline on our contracts and our shortage of dropship fuel. We can't afford many more of these inter-planetary hops and our objectives are now far from here."

"The detailed analysis of comm intercepts and recon data has now given us a clearer picture of what is going on here on Eaton. A man calling himself the Baron hired two lances of mercenaries to lead the resistance he has mustered, and we know little about the background of the unit, but we do now know mech composition and a little about the pilots. They've fought the clans, or have somehow gained clan tech and are very well equipped. We know that the two mercenary lances have a Warhammer, a clan Viper, an Atlas, a Ryoken, a Marauder, two heavier mechs of undetermined type and they had a Vulture, which was destroyed before we came on planet. We also know for certain that they have a Union class dropship or better on planet."

Now the murmurs around the table were growing louder, and interspersed quite liberally with curses. Sara looked at me and rolled her eyes, elicting a smirk from me, but before I could make a response Captain Alvaria took the floor. 

"The Governor's family and I have spoken recently, and they expressed that they recalled the Governor and Duke conferring about this unit, and that they were staging their raids very close to Koch City. So their dropship, if it hasn't moved, will be near there." The Colonel nodded and continued.

"Correct, but we suspect it was moved to bring that last raid against us. Now it could be anywhere. However, our real question for the moment is who is in command of the resistance? With their leader so nicely decapitated, the mercenaries could have just taken their money and run, unless someone else is now paying them. In that case, the question is who, and frankly, we have no idea."

Unconsciously I frowned and thought on the idea. _Who indeed?_ If I were the mercs, I'd have grabbed all the salvage I could from the resistance and taken to the skies. What compelled them to stay on planet against a larger mech force?

"And we still have at least six known resistance mechs, with possibly more in the woodwork. If the enemy is doing anything besides guarding the airfields and firebases they have control of, then they are spread very, very thin. With the Duke's personal bodyguard lance and his mixed armor group defending the capital, we can be fairly certain the enemy won't try anything there. So now we've got numerical superiority, but they have the technical edge and we don't know where they are or their motivations for fighting. The Governor and Duke have offered an additional contract, a search and destroy on the enemy mercenaries, it's very good pay and could end this war, but the resistance will be heavy. Additionally, we still need to destroy or capture that firebase, so I'm sending Kurato on a recon mission. Once our mechs are repaired we start the search for these mercs. Until then stay on station and ready. Any questions?"

Everyone had a few, and we broke down the specs and detail on the enemy lance in further detail, what carried what, how fast could they move, and so forth. Soon though the briefing was over and we were dismissed. Instead of leaving the room though we all stayed and continued to speculate on the mercenaries, the rebels, and our chances against them. One by one people trickled out until it was me, Solaria, Cadence, Terrance, and Sara lounging around the room. Terrance was bringing up maps and technical specs as we talked about them via the main console.

"See… here," he pointed to the rocky jungle area southeast of the capital, and close to the Governor's mansion, "this is where I'd hide my ride. In the trees." Sara cut in, reaching her arm out to trace paths on the holomap, the light playing over her skin.

"And notice how most of the strikes they've made have been within a neat circle of that area as well. Less than 150 kilometers in radius."

"But," interrupted Cadence, "they also just as easily could be located here," at this he pointed northeast of Koch City, to an especially rugged patch of desert and mountains, "and this would also put them within easy operational range of the vehicle fake and mech hit on us yesterday."

We all were silent a bit. Either one was just as likely. I shrugged and spoke up.

"Well, we aren't doing anything until our mechs are repaired, so it's a moot point. That reminds me, I promised Johann there'd be one Bravo mechwarrior down in the bay helping with repairs round the clock. Which one of you is up for first shift?"

Solaria looked at me in disbelief and Sara chuckled. Apparently this was something that happened often enough that she saw it coming ahead of time. Cadence stood up.

"I'm on it."

With that he left the room and as the door swung shut behind him I looked at Sara.

"Do does Johann pull this on all the new recruits?"

"Sure does, but not just the new recruits. Most of us like working on our mechs anyways, but he makes it a point to get the new guys in on the work. Idle mechwarriors can be dangerous you know."

I laughed. We prepared to exit the room but Terrance stayed behind, waving us on with an absent-minded motion as he focused on the maps still before him. I was a little uncertain of what to do with myself, fulfilling Sara's statement regarding idle mechwarriors and finally decided on finding some exercise equipment or weights. 

Nearly half-an-hour later I knew the dropship inside and out, though I had nearly gotten lost a few times, and had found an isometric machine. So I started going through a lifting routine I had done many times at the academy. My muscle memory was good and I was feeling the burn only in the background as I thought about the missions still remaining for us to complete. Find the mercs, kill them, destroy or capture the firebase, and end the resistance. There were many ways to go about it, but none open to me without my mech. Most likely, Kurato was out doing the recon we needed anyways with his team of scouts. 

I finished up and headed down to the bay door for a smoke. I noticed Cadence hard at work with Lonn, Johann, and a trio of other techs and also noted the absence of the light hovercraft and all-terrain cycles the scouts owned. Standing in the bay door feeling the crisp air I searched for tracks but really couldn't find any. After a few minutes I realized that there was a faint hovercraft track, but no cycle tracks. 

I shrugged and came inside again. How can you get bored in a combat zone? 

I spent the next five days mostly sleeping and working on the mechs. I tried to find time to talk with Sara, but she was nowhere to be found, so I usually ended up in the simulator with Cadence or Solaria. Zanshin and I spent some of our free time on the weight machine or practicing hand-to-hand combat. He was eager to see his mech repaired and get back into the fight, but both Cadence and Solaria seemed reluctant. Not everyone enjoys their first fight out of the academy I guess. I wasn't enjoying the fight, but the pay was racking up nicely…


	10. Trading Material for Position

**[CHAPTER 8 – "Trading Material for Position": Eaton: April, 3061]**

Good as new. 

My team and I stood in the mech bay, awash in the pale light of a sun that never went down at this latitude. The light shone through the door and illuminated our mechs, now fully repaired from the last melee. Once again these war machines would walk the field of battle and deal out death and destruction. 

Eltanin was fixed, but was not freshly painted. The wounds could be traced by the patchwork of armor where old seams met new. Zanshin's Hatchetman now carried two axes, one slightly larger that the other. Cadence's Raven had been fine all along, but it was still missing the TAG artillery spotting laser. We'd mounted a salvaged clan medium laser in its place and Cadence was very happy with the acquisition. It boosted firepower and range tremendously. Solaria's Griffin was the only one with fresh paint, as it had needed extensive external work and the techs had gone to the extra effort to make their work look that much more complete. 

"Well sir, looks like we're ready to go. So when do we move out?" rumbled Zanshin, with a grin and a raised eyebrow. He was eager, as always, to see combat. 

"We have a briefing later today at 2040." I took a drag on my cigarette before continuing. "And it looks like the firebase is next on the to-do list." 

He nodded and I looked at the others. They seemed ready and calm, but lacked the killer instinct and reckless abandon of their larger comrade. 

"Well then, see you all at the briefing." I turned and headed for the ramp.

"Where're you going Vance?" called Solaria. 

"I'm going for a walk."

The sun outside would have been setting somewhere else on planet. Here it was merely dipping low on the horizon, but the decrease in light was still enough to bring a dusk chill to the air, which was never warm here. I was glad I had my jacket on and my flak vest underneath. I walked down the ramp and flicked my cigarette to the red clay and rock. _This planet is a forsaken wasteland. _

After a few steps I heard steps behind me and turned to see Solaria coming up behind me. 

"Mind if I tag along sir?"

"Suit yourself. I'm not planning on going far."

We set off for the mesa near us and the grade got steeper and the ground rougher as we climbed. I wanted to get a good view of the surrounding area. I had done so a number of times since we had landed here when I felt like some walking and it gave a sense of perspective to be up high like that. 

Solaria and I got to talking and the conversation was mostly centered on the mission. We discussed the possible capabilities of the Warhammer for most of the climb. She was having no problem keeping up, but I suppose a girl of her size has a lot less weight to hoist up an incline like that. Even when she was several steps ahead of me on the slope I was as tall as her. 

It was about thirty minutes later that we found the ground leveling off and our heart rates begin to fall slightly as we reached the plateau. Wind-blasted canyons and crimson rock surrounded us from horizon to horizon. The dropship was a small gray dot on the landscape far behind us. 

"Vance, I have something to tell you."

I turned to face her thinking she was about to crack some joke and realized she was deadly serious. Her face was grave and she ran a hand through her hair before she spoke.

"Go ahead. What's on your mind?" 

"Something is wrong. Very wrong. Cadence and I were recalibrating the gear on his Raven and he was dumping the comm logs and he… heard something. Someone broadcasting a report to the other mercs."

My jaw dropped. There was another insider? This could compromise my whole situation. Worse yet, how much did Solaria know? What if she knew about me? But why would she have been all alone with me if she knew I was a traitor… unless… _crap._

I tensed and quickly scanned her for weapons. She wasn't carrying any and was now looking at the ground, toeing a rock absentmindedly. If she knew of my betrayal and was planning to kill me, now would've been a good time, but she failed to notice my alarm. 

"It sounded like someone was offering to assassinate someone in the unit. They kept talking about 'the target' and the pay to neutralize them. We checked the voice against some other patterns but it was scrambled so much we couldn't match it to anyone. The voice was deep and modulated, unisex, so it could have been anyone. The only people who know about this are you, Cadence, and me. We know it isn't you because you were working on the mechs below us when it happened. But we suspect anyone else. It could even be Zanshin."

I was relieved, but tried not to show it. Instead I put on a concerned look and pulled out a cigarette. I sat down on a large rock and looked out towards the south while I smoked. She sat down next to me and looked down. Finally I spoke.

"Well I guess this is the way it goes in this business. You don't always know who you can trust. But now we're onto them."

"So what should we do?"

"What can we do?" I asked. "We don't have enough information to go off of. We can't throw any accusations around till we know what's going on. We'll have to wait for more clues."

"And what if the assassin strikes before we know?"

"Let's hope we figure it out before then."

We sat a while thinking. Then we started going through the mechwarriors and crew, analyzing each one. We ruled out several techs and Johann, who had also been in the bay at the time. The other mechwarriors had been with the unit the longest and when we got done with our analysis, the most likely one came up Zanshin. 

"Can it be?" she asked.

"Stranger things have happened…" I mused, then frowned. "So who might the target be? The Colonel?"

"We naturally assumed so."

I glanced at my chrono. _Drek._ We had twenty minutes till the briefing.

"We need to get back, and we're gonna need to run. We'll talk more about this later with Cadence. We need a more analytical mind on this, and he's nothing if not analytical." 

She nodded and stood up, stretching her arms high and arching as she stretched, catlike. I tossed my cigarette to the ground and stood as well, loosening my jacket and putting my gloves back on. We started off at a jog. Going down was easy and exhilarating compared to the hike up. I kept turning the situation over in my mind, hoping to uncover some new clue. It was all in vain though, as I just didn't have enough information to draw a good conclusion. I could guess and be paranoid, or I could do my job. On the other hand, paranoia was beginning to become a way of life for me. Or was it just this mission, this place? _Screw it._ I ran on. 

Soon the dropship loomed before us. We bounded up the ramp and into the lift, drawing curious looks from a few techs. Some of them were smirking and I saw one shake his head and hand over some cash to Johann. I shot them a raised eyebrow as the lift doors closed. Solaria pushed a button for the level of the briefing room. We'd be about five minutes late probably. Not so late that we would get reprimanded I hoped, since this unit wasn't exactly into formality. 

We entered the briefing room, and luckily the briefing hadn't started and people were still milling about, so our entrance was mostly unnoticed, except by Cadence, who gave me a knowing look. I nodded slowly and purposefully to let him know that I knew of their discovery and took my seat at the table. A few minutes later the Colonel entered with Alvaria and took his place. The room naturally quieted in his presence and the lights dimmed at his command. 

"Hopefully this will be the last op on this rock for you people. We have two bits of recon that Kurato has transmitted to us as of this morning. First off, he has scouted the firebase and found it to be held by a lance of mixed mechs. None of the mechs match the descriptions of the mercs, so we're fairly certain they are all green resistance members, and not the seasoned vets we've seen recently."

That was good news, as there was a substantial reward for control of that firebase. 

"The other piece of news is that we have located their dropship. It took to the air late last night and Kurato tracked it. It had been located here…"

At this he directed us to the jungle near the capital, whereupon Terrance and I exchanged knowing glances. He gave me a slight smirk before looking back to the holo.

"…but is now located here."

Now the area highlighted was a deep canyon in the salt flats north of the capital. It was barren land, almost completely flat, with a dry hot climate. _Looks like the inside of a gun barrel_. . 

"Why they moved their dropship is not clear at this point, but we wouldn't have found it otherwise, so we're not looking this gift horse in the mouth. This puts them out of easy reinforcing range of the firebase and leaves it open to an assault. The quickest they could get there after we hit it is seven hours later. We plan to move in at cruising speed from the northwest, strike hard and neutralize the defenders, then let our infantry control the structure and activate the turrets. Johann, you'll need to accompany them to rig any quick repairs to the fire control system." 

"Capturing this firebase is worth more than three million cred to us, and we have full salvage rights on the defenders."

Eyebrows shot up around the room. Very good pay, and the salvage would be nice. Diane looked especially happy about it. This one was a big opportunity. 

"Following the capture of the firebase we will move on the enemy mercs. Maybe if we're lucky we'll get to use the firebase against them. At any rate, this will be the end of their lackeys they've been using as shields against us."

The discussion then turned to the actual physical structure of the base, the defenses, and the tactics involved in assaulting a walled and turreted compound. It was interesting, really, that what was basically a castle built after the military style of old Terra could still have a battlefield inpact in the 31st century. Of course, the castles of yore didn't have cannons on them that could sling an explosive projectile the size of a bull twenty-some kilometers with accuracy.

"Alright. We have a long hike ahead of us, so we need to get down to our mechs. Any questions? No? Good. I'll be company command on this op and Huntress will be Lance Commander for Alpha. Eagle lance with stay here to protect the Poseidon. I want one of you ready to launch at a moments notice if we need backup as well. Diane, you and Johann are gonna ride in the APCs with the infantry. Maybe we'll get you a mech there if all goes well."

Colonel Grenadine turned his aged and lined face around the room and looked each of us in the eye, then stood and turned off the hologram projector.

"All right then, let's move out."

Shortly we were all in our mechs and negotiating our way out of the mech bay. It felt good to be in the command couch again. Everything was in good running order, but the left shoulder felt a little tight. The cold air meant the mechs were running cooler than usual and as such, somewhat better. Outside of the dropship we formed up into an overlarge formation with Alpha in point and Bravo bringing up the rear. 

"Cadence, I want you ahead looking out for anything out of the ordinary."

"Copy that Bravo leader" he called back, and shot off ahead of the echelon. 

"Grenadine here, I want you all on passive sensors. Initiate visual scanning and don't forget to watch the skies."

The mechs lumbered forward. I watched Sara's Uziel kick up dust just behind Terrance's Shadow Hawk and Kellie's Thunderbolt. Huntress was in the lead in her modified Catapult, now with an LRM-20 in place of the fake Arrow-IV system and some extra lasers. Colonel Grenadine, in his Warhammer, was behind Alpha but in front of Solaria, Zanshin, and me. 

The range to the firebase was still over 700 kilometers. We were making good time, but it was still a long distance for a column of mechs to travel. Had we been able to spend the time talking, it could have been fun. However, as we were focused on visual scanning and maintaining radio silence, the march was a real chore. 

After three hours, the Colonel called a break and we got a chance to rest. I didn't eat anything though. Gregor had taught me that it was not good to eat before combat, since a full stomach complicates an intestinal wound. Besides, with my medipack keeping me stimmed up, I felt alert and eager, and the drugs were more potent on an empty stomach. 

The others stayed in their cockpits where it was warm, but I popped my seal and let the air vent. It was cold outside. The sun was dipped to its lowest point, more than one-third below the horizon. The light playing off the atmosphere and mountains was rather eerie. Crimson and purpled, the jagged rocks cast long shadows over the wind-carved dunes. 

I surveyed our team as I downed some water. Besides the food and water the Grenadiers had stowed in my mech, I had my own supply in the back of the cockpit. On a planet like this, you can't afford to run out of water. You can sweat to death in a mech in the heat of combat if not hydrated, and that is no way to die. 

Of all the mechs, only Cadence's was moving. He pivoted and took a few steps south, then turned to face me, paced back, and stared southwards. I looked and saw nothing. Then I noticed his communications dish tracking. He must've been scanning for signals. 

I dropped back inside and strapped in before I noticed what was out of the ordinary. My main terminal read text I normally did not see. 

% CADENCE HERE. THIS LINE IS SECURE. SOLARIA TOLD YOU?

I smirked. Leave it up to him to find a way to make a message pop up on my main HUD. The little mechmonkey had probably wired something into my cockpit. I paused for a moment, then decided to try keying in my response on the diagnostic keyboard. 

"Test test test. Yes." 

I was amused to see the words appear on my terminal, and Cadence respond quickly. 

"Got any ideas? I haven't intercepted any additional comm chatter."

I drummed my fingers on the console. No, I didn't have any ideas. The highest likelihood was Zanshin. But the really odd part was that whoever it was had had plenty of great chances to betray us earlier, but for some reason now was the time they chose to act. Suddenly, and idea struck me. 

"When was the comm intercept? Did it happen roughly the same time as the enemy dropship taking to the skies?"

I keyed my thoughts and transmitted to Cadence. His response was a few minutes in the making, during which I sat very impatiently. 

"Interesting. The comm burst preceded the dropship launch by about one hour."

Just then the other mechs started moving, coming to life, bringing death to our conversation. But now we had a clue. If the two were related, then we might be able to learn who was the traitor based on why the dropship moved, or why the dropship moved based on who was the traitor. I typed back to Cadence.

"Continue speculating. It's time to move. 

"Affirmative. I'll tell Solaria."

Cadence was really proving to be quite the useful soldier in more ways than his dossier suggested. Sure, he didn't excel at all-out combat like Zanshin, but he was a thinker and a technology whiz, and any tactician like me knows that technology and smarts beats raw skill in the long run. 

The Colonel's Warhammer signaled with its fist, calling us into formation. We continued our march across the darkened and bloodied landscape, winding our way around the stone outcroppings. Hour after hour passed uneventfully as the sun began to come fully into view again, shortening the shadows with each passing moment. 

When the Colonel called the second halt to our hike, I was eager to resume the conversation. I brought up the command console and began typing as I worked on my water ration. 

"Guys, the union class dropship they have would take a little under one hour to power up and prep for launch. I conclude that the communication you intercepted prompted the launch."

As first I was worried that the message hadn't been sent or that Cadence had lost his connection to my mech and had started retyping it when I got a response from him.

"I agree. But why would assassinating someone cause them to move a dropship and land it again? That doesn't make sense." He was right. It didn't make any sense at all. I unconsciously reached behind me and popped my cockpit seal so I could light up and returned to the keyboard with a lit cigarette hanging from my lips. 

"What exactly did they say in the message?" I typed back. I had to wait for about a minute before he responded. I secretly hoped the rest of the team had to dismount and urinate so Cadence and I would have more time. 

"It said: Data on objective is accurate, proceed with the plan. Will neutralize target at first opportunity as contracted. You know the consequences if you fail to live up to your end of the deal."

_What the bloody hell? _I sat for a long while with brows furrowed in frustration. What plan? As far as I had been told the planetary revolution had intended to support the Steiners in the FedComm Civil War, so the only logical objective was to simply seize control of the planet. Unless they were talking about the Governor, or perhaps the Duke. The Governor's family? The Duke's family? Were they heirs to more than the planet? What did heirs and heiresses matter if you had military control? 

I finished my cigarette and flicked it out the hatch as the other mechs started to move again. Still no progress, but at least I had some more data to chew on so my mind wouldn't run in circles for the next two or three hours. 

The sun was now getting high enough to properly call it morning, so I typed Cadence a good morning message, which he responded to with a confusing series of symbols. I didn't have time to decipher them and got Eltanin moving for what would hopefully be the final leg of our journey. 

Somewhere ahead loomed a fortress of stone and metal and it was worth good money to claim it as our own. Three million c-bills for control of an archaic outpost from the pre-succession-wars era. Only later would I appreciate the irony of the sum.


	11. The Exchange of Pawns

­**CHAPTER 9 – "The Exchange of Pawns": Eaton: April, 3061 **

Dawn stretched across the horizon, spreading the light from the star unevenly onto the desert landscape. Long shadows of deepest black abruptly gave way to the deep red I had already come to loath, and in a small, subconscious way, even fear. Though whether it was truly fear or just the burst of adrenals and stimulants from my medipack was always hard to tell.

Combat was once again upon us, and soon our roughly man-shaped behemoths would flatten, incinerate, and perforate anyone and anything that got between us and that almighty paycheck. In the back of my mind some memory of a shinto priest brought a final word of prayer in affirmation in a monotone tenor. If we worshipped anything, it was probably money. Or perhaps we worshipped power. Money and power were interchangeable in the world we lived in, so it probably amounted to the same thing.

The Grenadier echelon was pointed southeast, and we were now bearing down on the ancient firebase at flank speed, the steel hooves of our mounts treading down flora and fauna alike. The mad dash was short, blessedly so, as mounted on the central control building was a cannon of immense size and power, linked to a radar fire control system. So far, it had not spoken its word of death on our heads.

The Colonel, in the center of the attack formation, came on the comm then.

"Alright, we know the attack pattern. Alpha, sweep north of the main gate and neutralize defenses as you go then bust straight in so we get the infantry to the control tower immediately. Provide covering fire and shield them from any hostiles. Once we get inside Bravo will head directly for the mech bay and attempt to catch any empty mechs for capture. Anyone on foot near them is to be killed immediately, Vance. Shoot first, and this could be the biggest prize in the history of the Grenadiers. Everyone stay focused and most importantly stay with your lance. Let's do it."

At this we all went to active sensors. Somewhere deep within the fortress, alarms would have started blaring now. I glanced at the tactical screen and absorbed the input. No mechs on scope, radar showed the skies as clear, and the range was steadily decreasing. Only 600 meters to the northwest corner now.

My tac-grid screamed then, and lit up like a Christmas tree with red hostile radar contacts. We were being tracked by at least a dozen sources on the base.

"That'd be the turrets. Destroy only as necessary" said Colonel Grenadine.

Bright laser blasts cut through the air around us just as the comm clicked off. Kellie's Thunderbolt took several hits and a few near misses grazed the Colonel's shoulder.

I worked the fire control system and magnified my view, following the line of the wall and aligning my reticle on the turret. Paired lasers pointed back directly at me. I fired my PPC and watched as the beam struck one of the guns, filling the air around it with vapor and smoke. A split second behind me, the rest of the Grenadier PPCs were lighting up the dawn. The turret returned fire once, then was silenced.

We reached the smoldering corner of the firebase where the turret had been half a minute later and ran now along the wall of the compound. It was a dark tan, some composition of steel or concrete, and lit only from the reflected sunlight on the surface, as no dawnlight fell on it yet. The north gate seemed to be unguarded still, the surprise and timing of our attack our greatest ally.

Terrance's Shadow Hawk, in the lead, was suddenly engulfed in a series of terrific explosions. Red desert rock was thrown high into the sky by black smoky fireballs at his feet. The black roses blossomed with an inner orange core and propelled his mech onto its back before the view was obscured. Kellie's Thunderbolt and Sara's Uziel skidded to a halt, Kellie running into the wall with her shoulder and digging a rut in the concrete-like tanned stone. A hail of rocks hit my cockpit and haze and dust filled the scene before me. I discerned what happened just as the view began to clear. Terrance was on his back and slowly rising, his leg armor and lower torso armor ripped to shreds and blackened to a charcoal color.

"They've mined the entrance," shouted Huntress "we can't go in this way!"

"We'll go around to the south entrance then." Commanded the Colonel.

I keyed my mic "That will take too long, we need to keep the element of surprise on our side. If we go to that entrance they will be waiting for us there."

The comm was quiet for a moment, then the Colonel spoke up, in a mildly irritated tone.

"What exactly are you proposing we do then?"

"Terrance, Solaria and Zanshin all have jump jets and can clear the perimeter wall. While they head to the mech bay, we'll blast our way through either the minefield or even the wall itself. It would take 5 or 6 minutes to even get to the south entrance, and we'll be done here long before then."

"My jump jets show malfunctions right now, but I like the idea of us making a new door" growled Terrance.

"Alright, change of plans. Solaria, Zanshin, get in there and prevent any new hostiles from powering up. Everyone else, back away from the wall and shoot where I do."

Zanshin hit his jets and the Hatchetman leapt forward and over the wall. Solaria hesistated a moment, looking at me, and then went over herself. _Too late for that now.__ If Zanshin's the traitor…that might have been a very bad call. _

The rest of us were backpedaling and aiming at the wall when Colonel Grenadine's dual PPC blasts rocked the center of the wall, blowing a huge crater into the side of the firebase. Then we all opened up.

Laser energy, high velocity explosive shells, missiles, and particle beam weapons all focused on the wall in a torrent of destruction. Chunks the size of automobiles flew free of the base, some cartwheeling dangerously close to the feet of our steaming mechs. The missiles seemed to be doing the most damage and it was then I realized that the outer portion of the wall had ablative armor. I signaled this to Huntress and we scattered our rockets across the face, blowing the absorbing armor off the wall.

It was Sara's PPCs that punched through first, after a minute of the hellstorm, and now the pieces were blowing into the courtyard in huge chunks. We redoubled our efforts, pouring the energy into the ever widening gap, and soon we had a gap big enough for even the largest of our mechs to use.

"Go! Move now! Alpha first! Infantry dismount and follow us in!"

Kellie drove her Thunderbolt forward, smashing chunks with her hand acuators as she stepped through, enlarging the hole. Huntress and Terrance were right behind, followed by Sara. As she moved her Uziel through the gap, I heard Kellie scream, panicked, on the comm.

"Contact, two heavies! Open fire, open fire dammit, DIE!"

From inside the dark courtyard I could see glimpses of flashing laser light as Sara cleared the breach. I got in line behind the Colonel and Cadence and just then noticed the infantry now pouring through the front gate. Then didn't have to worry about setting off an anti-mech mine and had run across the surface of the minefield with reckless abandon.

Cadence leapt his Raven through the hole nimbly, and I moved through myself then, crunching shrapnel and fragments underfoot as I went, and then I surveyed the courtyard.

An enemy Atlas and Annihlator were to the East, backed against a plain building, and I caught sight of a colossal Marauder just before it disappeared behind the control tower in the center.

"Cadence, NARC the Atlas now!" I shouted as I lined up my PPC. My shot clipped its bearlike right paw and struck the waistline, blowing a huge hole down to the internals.

I didn't see whether he fired or not, but a split second later I locked on with my LRMs and fired a volley, swarming the giant with concussions as he stepped forward and prepared to fire. _Another Atlas.__ Let me count the ways I hate thee…_

This Atlas was similarly deadly, just as tall, but far less damaged than the first one I'd faced on planet. In truth, the first I had ever faced. I had hoped it would be my last, but here I was again staring into that death's head grin. I would never truly shake that image of Atlases throughout my career. They would always be the penultimate in raw, unbridled destruction and I would both respect and fear the machines for what they were - siegebreakers. Machines that knew neither subtlety nor grace, but only death. _The first to kill and also the first to die, as everyone shoots at the biggest threat first.__ Death to the opposition and death to the pilot alike. _I knew though, that somehow, when death came for me, it would be personified by the grim skullish visage of the Atlas.

Death came first for Terrance though, and in his death he saw that visage clearly. Already damaged and in a lighter mech than the rest of Alpha, he had quickly been selected as a target by the rebel mechs. After entering the courtyard and cursing under his breath at the minefield treachery, he had spun at Kellie's cry to face the juggernaughts across the firebase's courtyard. The Atlas had immediately been joined by the Annihilator and he and Kellie had blasted the quad-cannon wielding Annihilator first.

Deadly at short range, the Annihilator raked Terrance's mech with the autocannons, blowing first a hand free and then the entire left arm. Terrance did not stop firing though. His already shimmering mech now blazed heat as he fired his own cannon, smaller and alone against the four horses set to quarter him. Kellie's gunfire joined his but the Annihilator absorbed the damage and stood in a wide gunfighter stance, the gyros absorbing the motion shock. Another cannonade blew his right knee out, and he went to his knees, arm extended and firing madly. The third broadside blew his extended arm to pieces and scored the torso armor. He turned back and fired his missiles without trying to rise. Huntress and Sara then joined battle, blasting the annihilator and finally rocking it off it's foundations. Terrance screamed in rage at the rebels.

"Never! Die you…"

As the Colonels PPCs struck dead center on the Annihilator, leaving glowing wounds on the chest, the Atlas took one step and fired. The lasers and missiles crisscrossed with my own before striking and Terrance's Shadow Hawk exploded sending fragments far across the battlefield and leaving a boiling black oily cloud where he had stood.

Someone else screamed into the comm as the whole of Alpha fired on the Annihilator, now cutting into it's rounded, almost fat belly. I almost chuckled at the mech for a split second, but then it regained composure and fired again, this time at Kellie, scattering heavy damage across her torso and ruining some of her lasers.

I fired also, my PPC and missiles streaking across the battlefield and joining Alpha's fullisade. The combined assault ripped open its fat belly and cut deeply into the fusion core. The hapless pilot did not manage to eject either and now a second black cloud reached towards the brightening sky.

_Eye for an eye…_ We all turned our attention towards the Atlas now and moved to encircle him, firing continuously. He looked right at fired at me, damaging my torso, and then left and fired at the Colonel's Warhammer, deeping the scars on it at well. We were leading the crescent, I on the north and Colonel on the south, and the whole of our company between, our vengeance hot and our lasers hotter.

We had just passed the control tower when our weapons tore his machine apart also, blowing off the head and as the torso collapsed, it was rocked with explosions and jerked like a reflexive headless corpse. _Death comes to the Atlas, just as it is dealt._ I turned south to flash a thumbs up and my stomach clenched in a raw spasm of terror.

"Colonel! On your three!"

The Marauder that had rounded the corner and been forgotten in the melee stood a mere ninety meters to his right. He spun his 'Hammer with reflexes and speed befitting of a mechwarrior of his status and opened fire at the same moment as his foe. Beams arced and centered for a split second on both machines full blast, knocking both back, and as both righted again, dual PPCs from each mech also struck the other.

Marauders and Warhammers are as mortal enemies as Montagues and Capulets. Both have massive long range firepower and similar speed. Warhammers have slightly better firepower at close range, but not the heat dissipation capacity to use it for long. As the Marauder pilot switched to his autocannon the Colonel let loose with his missile rack, scattering holes in his opponent's hide.

I checked the range and fired my PPC and missiles just in time to prevent a second autocannon shot then, but only clipped him. Kellie burst around the corner at the same time and fired at the ground in front of the Marauder, throwing a cloud of dust and a hail of stones into its chest and face, staggering and blinding him, and she and the Colonel advanced on the now outgunned and outnumbered Marauder.

With surprise gone, the Marauder turned and ran, firing one last PPC barrage but missing wildly as he sought the cover of the southeast corner of the control tower, with his enemies in hot pursuit.

I scanned the tactical grid, then looked up and noticed the infantrymen now beginning to reach the door to the control tower. _Excellent._ If another mech or two showed up, we could turn the turrets on them. Maybe we could also find out where else they had placed mines.

"Zanshin, Solaria, report, do you have contact with any enemy mechs?"

For an agonizing moment, there was no response. Then Solaria came on the comm.

"Sir, we are in the west mech bay and there is an Awesome parked here. I'm pretty sure we just killed the pilot, or a pilot at least. We have no other hostiles on scope."

That was good news at least, but we were still down one mechwarrior. I turned my attention back to the battle and saw Kellie and the Colonel follow the Marauder around the corner and the south courtyard was lit now with gunfire and lasers.

"Sergeant, this is Huntress, have your men secured the tower yet?"

"Negative huntress we are encountering light resistance, but it is… …in process."

His transmission was punctuated by bursts of gunfire and I smirked as I pushed Eltanin up to speed to join Kellie and the Colonel. Their mechs showed on the command console, as did Solaria's and Zanshin's in the west mech bay, tucked behind the tower from my current position.

A pair of bright flashes in the south courtyard stone heralded back to me the death of the Marauder as I neared the control tower's northeast corner. My attention was suddenly diverted by a new radar contact warning, but when I check my tactical grid there was nothing new to show.

"Stay alert, I'm getting an intermittent contact on scope, Colonel do you see anything?"

No answer came. _Jammed._Somewhere, someone was ruining our signal by flooding the waves with useless garbage. I noticed Huntress and Cadence guarding the infantry by the north door to the tower. _Sara must've cleared the corner and headed to the rear. _

I decided to pince the south courtyard with Sara to join Kellie and the Colonel, just in case there was an enemy contact powering up there. My heat level had fallen and I double checked my weapons and battle damage readout before I rounded the corner and entered the south courtyard.


	12. Transition to Endgame

­**CHAPTER 10 – "Transition to Endgame": Eaton: April, 3061 **

Life moves fast, but there are times when it moves at a crawl. Times in fact, where your consciousness seems the temporal gravitational well, that everything is focused on you, that time for all other beings stands still while you suck the deficit down the drain in some crucial time span, thieving their time when you need it to stay alive. Some might have called it fate or karma or some trancendental bullshit but I still attribute it to sheer survival instinct coupled with the honed reflexes of warrior-kind.

So it was that when I rounded that corner to the south courtyard that would be my trial of defeat, my timesense slowed and became useless. Moving at full throttle, I was able to discern each myomer firing, each shift in weight, each mechanical limb controlled subconsciously by my middle brain and physically by the mech's gyroscope. I could smell the heat and musk of my own perspiration, and the very slight tang of the tobacco smoke that would never leave this cockpit, unless of course a stronger smoke replaced it, as it very soon would.

As the ferrocrete armored siding gave way to a full view of the ambush I first noticed the Colonel's mech, the tanned and scored Warhammer, headless and face-first to the ground, the long right-arm particle projection cannon bent underneath the smoking, glowing torso, and the left cannon several meters away from it's dismembered owner. I next noticed the Marauder, standing just outside the south gate but pivoted to look into this darkened courtyard. The smoke from the Warhammer obscured for a moment Sara's Uziel, but Kellie's Thunderbolt waited for me, nearly astride the downed mech.

Before I could get on the comm, my eye was drawn to her shoulder mounted missile launcher and the telltale circular orange flecks of rocket launches, and this was when my combat senses kicked in. LRMs are fast, but the Thunderbolt is an older mech, and the launcher cycles through rockets sequentially, rather than firing salvoes like Eltanin's. While the first missile was still in flight, I had already reacted and was attempting to jink to the right. The older launchers where also notorious for minimum range issues and I was too close for the missiles to track well, and as a result more than half of the stream of rockets missed completely. I registered the sensations of the percussions and waited for my gyroscope to steady me for I lined up my own shot with my PPC.

Moving to a half crouch I nearly stopped myself as I wondered if there perhaps hadn't been some mistake, that she had fired at me accidentally, or mistaken me for a hostile, or my IFF transponder had gone out. In the split second of hesitation her lasers tracked onto my position and fired, in a way that was deliberate and quite antagonistic. My BDU began flashing yellow but I seemed to only hear it dimly, as one might hear the sounds of nearby dormitories through even thick walls, the muffled conversations, parties, and lovemaking.

I must've fired then, as the streak of my PPC reached out to her. I managed to hit her directly dead center, scoring a devastatingly clean shot right above the mech's fusion heart, beating with white-hot plasma. In the dark recesses of my mind, the calculators crunched and I knew I only needed three more shots like that to take her out completely. _Or less…_ The hit was so strong that her next shot went wild, striking the building next to me and etching a groove in its façade.

Piercing through the loud damage warnings of my BDU came the almost casual tone of my missile lock on and I cycled to my launcher and fired it off, the rockets leaving wispy gray contrails and splashing the crater on her chest with more damage. In my battle haze, I did not smile, only calculated. I rose and angled south, but kept a bead on her now righted mech. Her lasers struck again then, cutting like claws all over my torso, and I clawed back with my own.

_Traitor bitch. _I aligned my PPC and struck her a second time just above the fusion core and exposed the internal structure. She was mine. Just one more shot and the cannon would cut through the titanium-carbide structure and breach the fusion core's shielding, letting loose the very literal hellfire there. _You're mine. I've won this battle. _And I would have, if there would have been time for one more shot.

But my time ran out just then. I had a moment of comprehension as twin bluish trails linked my mech and Sara's captured Uziel. We might have been simply holding up two very long, very bright girders between us, but if that was the case, why was my mech spouting enormous gouts of flame and throwing fiery shrapnel forth like spittle? Now I did, in fact, hear the BDU's alarms, and I was thrown hard against my restraints as her twin arm mounted cannons pounded my mech off its feet and I soared. Something broke free and struck me in the temple, not entirely blunt but not sharp enough to penetrate, yet still enough of both to beat me senseless and still leave a nasty cut behind, not that I knew about it then. For then I knew only that I was soaring.

My memory exaggerates it of course. I lost the sensation of weight and gave in to gravity's pull, and so did Eltanin, but soaring is too strong of a word for the clumsy, explosive hop that we took. If the flight was clumsy, the landing was more so. My mech's shoulder carved deep ruts in the earth as I skidded to a stop amidst another hail of rocket and laser fire. Klaxons sung and heat poured into the cockpit. Fires like greedy little demon children leapt out of the consoles as shorts in the circuitry ignited absolutely anything that could burn. I was mostly trying to figured out why the hell the planet had abruptly made a 90 degree rotation and had moment of horror in which I tried to claw the ground to keep from falling vertically down and off it before another set of particle beams sunk into my downed machine and I watched the beams come in, from to the right - _or was it above-_ where Sara's Uziel in the corner – _or top – _of my viewport bore down beside Kellie's Thunderbolt.

This second set of beams cut their way into the torso interior and suddenly all was orange, yellow, and black as my ammunition blew and my mech lifted off the ground _– soaring again! –_ like a too-fat exploding grasshopper that can only hop once.

My instincts came active and my hand slammed onto the eject button. Once, twice, three times and I mashed it down with all my strength. I could feel my skin starting to burn now as the fire seemed to consume completely. I was thrown side to side by more explosions, the smoke filled the cockpit and then one final explosion, quiet and soft to my deadened senses, rocked my world and I knew it no more.

I would call them fevered dreams, but fevered implied sickness, and dreams imply non-reality. Its likely that any user of strong narcotics would have known what I experienced. My viewport on reality was not clear. It was smudged or misted over, but it was reality. It was so warped as to be dreamlike, but it was not dreamlike.

Semantics notwithstanding, I passed into a period of semi-unconsciousness that a narcotic addict would have understood. I was a mild addict to tobacco and adrenaline, but those don't filter reality to the extent of some others. This reality was heavily filtered. Demonic faces looked down at me. Great black demonic faces, and one of them was an Atlas, but I realized immediately that it was of my own creation and I made a mental shaking of the head to clear it. This produced pain that was also decidedly undreamlike.

I watched Sara and Kellie come to stand over Eltanin, not just my mech but the mech of my family for now three pilots. They were painting it with lurid neon glowing paint from strange hoses and the paint was splashing back up at them. As it all mixed, like paint does, it got all oily and dark and must've multiplied or risen like yeast in dough. Some of it splashed back up in oranges and reds, but most of it was the slick oily black color. But the paint was acid paint, and now Eltanin was melting into the ground.

Apparently their artistic vision was not satisfied as now they turned to paint the Colonel's Warhammer as well and did a very quick and thorough job of it. Then they turned and fled towards the south gate. I felt each throb of the ground as their steps fell in unison, but it was my pain that was throbbing with them. Each step was more painful until they passed and then it receded like a tide.

My vision cleared. My pain hadn't gone away, it was there still in the background, but my medipack had hit me with a dose of something. Morphine this time? I laughed. _More drugs! I love drugs!_ I chuckled more and then began to roll around in a real schoolboy fit of the giggles. I could sense that the rolling was very painful and my mind was registering, dimly, the injury caused by it, but the situation was too hilarious to stop. _What the hell just happened? _Whatever had happened, it was still too funny to concentrate on.

The morphine haze soon subsided and then I saw the scene for what it really was. Eltanin, my brother's mech and my father's mech and my mech, was blasted into a thousand burning, melting, white-hot fragments before me. Completely destroyed and where the hell was I? Laying on the grass? I was surrounded by metal shards from the remnants of the cockpit and perhaps shoulder, had been rolling on them in fact and getting burned by them and cut by their cruel corners.

I looked around and saw Kellie and Sara's mechs disappearing through the south gate, where a third mech awaited them but my eyes were too blurry to identify its trim silhouette. As they turned and passed out of view behind the firebase wall it hit me how completely I'd been had. I'd damn near fell in love with that traitorous bitch.

Merc mechwhore! I will kill her. Slowly and painfully, Sara. You'll pay for destroying the last link I had with my brother. Vengeance is a dish best served very very hot and you'll get it alright.

Worse yet, she'd been in it with Kellie Orion all along. I read her dossier and knew she had been in the court of the Steiners. Why hadn't I put two and two together? But she wasn't the most likely possibility, and Sara was farther from likely, given the history both had with the Colonel. Zanshin was the logical traitor, but now I felt guity for suspecting him. He was as guileless as a child… or maybe a clanner. He longed for the straight fight, man to man, hand to hand, fair and balanced where strength and courage won the day.

I surveyed the wreckage of the late David Grenadine's Warhammer. It was a total loss. Nothing remained. The sisters of betrayal had made very sure he was dead. _Hell, it's a miracle I'm alive!_ Somehow I had ejected in that final blaze but it hadn't looked like an ejection, or…

I looked around and realized I was still tied into my seat, or what was left of it, by one strap. No, I had only partially ejected, and that half-malfunction had probably saved my life. I looked myself over. I was covered liberally in serious burns, and was as bald as a newborn baby from head to toe. My clothes were melted or burned mostly away and clung to my body like scar tissue. I had several very bad cuts, probably shrapnel wounds, and probably the shrapnel was still in there. The worst of it was on my legs. Shirt, belt, equipment still fairly intact, though scorched.

The pitter-patter of little Raven feet alerted me to Cadence's arrival and I looked northward to see his profile. He froze in mid stride at the corner, one long crow foot paused in the air, and then turned and darted for cover behind an eastern shack where he half crouched. His mech looked side to side, and appeared to even cock it's head slightly to the right. After a time, he stood up and I could hear more approaching mechs. Huntress and the rest of Bravo came around the opposite corner in a tight formation, ready for battle.

I unbuckled the one remaining restraint and stood up. Now the pain started to really kick in, but I ignored it and moved away from the carnage of my mech, trying to get their attention. Cadence darted forward now to go join the rest of the team and he noticed me walking and came to a stop.

"Sir! Are you alright?"

The external speakers were so deafeningly loud that I winced and staggered to the side. _Good grief! Turn down the vidscreen you good for nothing kids! You'll go deaf! Don't sit so close or you'll go blind!_ Gregor and I had loved watching the mech battles on the screen and had always been far too eager to really experience it up close.

_Well this was close enough for me this time Dad, I got burned and deafened this time! And guess what, Gregor died just like you! And now Eltanin is gone! Wow the time sure does fly, doesn't it? _

I fell to my knees and threw up. It was mostly water, but the spasms were fiery agony while they lasted. _Gregor, you were right about not eating before combat. _He was always right about pure combat. Gregor was a master of the actual implementation of the fighting. Skilled hands and lightning fast reflexes. Me, I was the thinker, the strategist, he was the shooter, the marksman. _Was. _

I struggled painfully to my feet and looked up. Even though the whole episode had seemed long, it had probably only been a few minutes at most. Had the infantry even taken the tower yet? I thought not.

The other mechs seemed to be communicating and finally Solaria's Griffin stepped forward and put down a hand. It took me a while to step onto it and get a good hold and then she lifted me to the cockpit and I had to suppress every pain instinct in my body as I tried to get off the damn metal hand and onto the head but finally did. She had already popped the cockpit seal and was looking up expectantly.

"Sir? Are you gonna be okay?"

I nodded and stepped onto the ladder and descended, ignoring her raised hand completely. When I reached the bottom I tried to speak.

"Water."

Nothing came out, but she got the idea and reached for her provisions, finally producing a canteen which I focused on and grabbed with both hands. I first tried to drink with the cap on, then spun it off and tried again. It was blessedly cool and sweet and possibly the most delicious thing I ever had. _Damn, this is good. I should get third-degree burned more often! _

"Is he in there Solaria?" came Huntress's voice over the comm.

"I'm here all right."

"He's pretty bad though. We need to get him to the medics quickly." Solaria looked at me with a mixture of concern and admiration. Underneath it all, I sensed there was deep pity, and that pissed me off just a little and comforted me as well, damn it all.

"Yes, you do, but first we plan. Cadence, you get on that Awesome as soon as you can. I need a mech. Crack it. Some techs are lazy and leave secure entry documents right there with the mech, especially stupid rebel mongrels. We need the lasers and cannon online. Have the infantry secured the tower?"

Solaria turned and sat back in the seat and keyed a new comm channel to include the infantry leader and repeated my request.

"Affirmative command, but we haven't gotten anywhere in the system yet. We're still rounding up enemy troops and securing the stations. The techs are still outside."

I reached over and keyed the mic.

"Sergeant this is Leftenant Strovski, make control of those turrets your highest priority and get the techs on the artillery piece immediately. Cadence will spot for you if you get it online. There are three hostile mechs well within range that are fleeing and we need to take them out if we can. In the meantime, sweep the building and ensure that there are no explosives left behind. I'm expecting a trap so be thorough and quick."

"Yes sir. Is the Colonel alright?"

"The Colonel is dead Sergeant, and we will all join him if you fail at your tasks."

I released the mic and keyed off the relay. Solaria was staring up at me with wide, very frightened eyes, her mouth pulled down at the corners in fear and trepidation.

"Solaria," came Huntress's voice "get Vance to the personnel carriers for medical attention. We'll move the base of operations inside when the tower has been swept. I want you and Zanshin to get the vehicles inside safely. Jump over the wall again and escort them around to the south entrance but be wary of mines. They are too vulnerable up there on the north side. Cadence, I'll come with you to the Awesome for now."

A few minutes later I was in the back of the infantrymen's APC with the medic. _Such is the life of a mercenary._ She was a brute of a woman, possibly in her mid thirties, with a layer of fat over the muscle that gave her a stocky, bulldog-like appearance. Her bowl-cut hair didn't help her feminity much either. My medipack had injected me with more morphine now and it was beginning to screw with my mind again. I felt sleepy and rested at the same time, like when you stretch after a good nap and feel like what you really need is round two.

My cigarettes were nowhere to be found, which was irritating. _Burn a man's smokes, will ya?_ I wanted one and opened my eyes to watch the medic, nurse, bulldog, whatever, applying burn salve to my right arm. She had bandaged me up good on the legs and was working her way up, it looked like.

"I don't suppose you have any cigarettes on you," I checked her nameplate, "Corporal Helios?"

"No, I don't, but I'll hit the techs up. Johann smokes. Let me finish up here first. Is the pain still okay?"

I nodded. It hurt like a sonavubitch actually. Like when your lips get cracked and you're afraid to lick them or move them or they'll split like a cooked bratwurst, except this was over my entire body in patches. To state it bluntly, I was mad. _And thus did the war-god Vance damn the sisters of betrayal. _The nurse, _medic_, I corrected myself, had a new pair of boots and pants on the floor next to me, and I could see some of my gear there as well. Who knew how much of it still worked though.

Fifteen minutes later, I finally got my cigarette. I'm not sure where she got it from, but whoever it was apparently liked to smoke ground horseradish. They were bitter, stale, and awful… and I loved every minute of it. I didn't stop smoking for nearly twenty minutes while the painkillers and salve did their work. I could move with discomfort, and if I wanted to reopen some wounds, I could move fast and with power. Hopefully they would heal a little better before there was need of that. I'd have nasty scars on my legs and arms, and it felt like a bad one on the right side of my scalp.

I had three cigarettes left and was fully purposed in my mind to smoke them linked in the chain when the comm crackled.

"Vance, this is Cadence, I've hacked the Awesome and it's coming online now."

I made my way to the front of the APC and sat down next to the driver, who was also smoking, and reading a lewd adult magazine. Then I opened a channel so I could make my reply.

"Excellent. I'll be right there. Huntress, what is our situation with the firebase?"

"It's all ours, which is good news. Three mil, and it looks like we'll be splitting the high pay among fewer warriors."

"Small consolation though. We'll discuss it further when I get there. Vance out."

The driver continued smoking until I punched him in the shoulder.

"Lets go pal, I ain't walkin' to the mechbay like this."

Cadence had indeed cracked the Awesome. It would make a fine replacement for Eltanin. Although the technology was old, it was a reliable and well-armored assault mech. Three particle projection cannons, the old kind that lacked the impressive range of the new ones, or the damage of the clanner PPCs, but still deadly. The older PPCs were more energy efficient than the new ones, and if you knew how to use them and could close the range, just as effective. They were also tried and true, easier to repair, and when you considered heat, tonnage, and weapon mounts, probably the best bang for your buck in the Inner Sphere arsenal besides the bread and butter medium laser.

Mostly importantly of all, PPCs were weapons with which I was very familiar. This mech would do very nicely. I scanned it for damage but it didn't show any on the front. Then I frowned as I realized it had no other weaponry. The laser and missile mounts had been stripped clean. That would be a disadvantage, certainly, if I faced infantry or vehicles. _Not that any sane infantryman will face an assault mech. _But why were the mounts stripped? I didn't see anything else mounted in their place. _Well, we may find out when we take it out for a test drive._

I lit one of the last three cigarettes I had been given and gazed around the mech bay. Twelve berths, all empty but this one. I made a mental note to get our salvage teams in here to pilfer the ammunition, spare weapons, and armor. There were three scout craft and another APC as well, no, scratch that, the APC was missing its engine. The scout craft could prove to be useful, they were five-ton hovercrafts, one-man jobs that had recklessly high top speeds, paper-thin armor, and a high mortality rate for the driver. If speed was what you wanted though, and scouts usually did, then they were great machines for the job.

"Well sir, it's coming up and online, I'm reseting the neurohelmet so you can recalibrate it and reset the entry commands. You sure you're gonna get to keep it?"

"I'd like to see them try to take it."

I grinned and Cadence grinned back. I knew he didn't want it, but wasn't sure who he thought would try to relieve me of it. Most mechwarriors liked their own mechs. Diane was the only dispossessed mechwarrior around, and she wasn't fiesty enough to take it from me, by force or by legal means. Besides, I had lost my mech in combat and was a lance commander and we still had a job to do.

Then again, I had underestimated Sara and Kellie, it simply wouldn't do to make the mistake of underestimating a mechprincess again. No, better to trust the ones who wear their hostility on their sleeve. You don't need to worry about a knife in the back from a femme fatale like Huntress, but I would need to mistrust any vulnerable beautiful women, because they could lull you with the vulnerability and plant that beauty between your ribs like a stiletto. _Sara…_ I refocused on the Awesome in front of me. If I were to revenge Eltanin, I would need this machine to do so.

"Cadence. What's with the weapons loadout? 3 old PPCs? It looks like its got the new engine, and sinks, but I see old PPCs and no secondary armament." I took a deep drag while he furrowed his brow and looked up.

"Yeah I know. That would make it eight tons short on equipment. I think there are extra heat sinks. Does it normally have them on the arm?" I shook my head.

"Well then, its got a few extra and it's using the new double heat sinks to boot, with the lightweight fusion reactor, which means the torso is short on space and big on targets, probably they pulled the weapons to make room. But you're wrong about the PPCs sir. Sure, the one in the right arm is old, but both torso PPCs are newer versions."

Hmm. Mixed PPCs. I didn't like that nearly as much as all one type, but I wasn't in a position to be picky. It would still fulfill a command role just fine.

"How recently was all this done?"

"Hard to tell. I checked it carefully, and there was a locator beacon on it," he pointed to a small, cylindrical metal object at his feet. "which I removed, but it was in such an obvious spot that I got suspicious. So I used Pi's comm gear to scan for any transmitters and found a second one. There aren't any other bugs that I can tell, and it hasn't had structural work in… my guess is years." He appeared to consider my cigarette smoke for a moment before continuing.

"Let me pull up the maintenance log. Looks like we've got a total tonnage of seventy-eight or so. So yeah, she's riding a little high in the water." He was now punching around on his notebook computer furiously.

"But everything else seems to be the same. It's got a faulty left shoulder joint, not passing its diagnostics, and the self destruct circuits aren't responding… lets see… some yellow flags in the left arm myomer bundles but you won't be needing that much. She looks battle-worthy sir."

I nodded, cast my cigarette butt to the floor, and began my painful ascent using the handholds. I could feel my skin cracking in a few spots to let blood and plasma mix with burn cream, and stain my bandages, but I couldn't care less. I was enjoying the pain actually. If you feel pain it means you're alive, that your nervous system is transmitting signals to your spinal cord, and from there to your brain. When you're wired hot on pain you can react faster, you can think better. You have to, because your body thinks that it is dying.

"Sir, don't you want some food and water?"  
"Bring it up with the neurohelmet, I'm gonna start getting aclimated. Have you calibrated the comm gear?"

"Fifteen damn minutes ago, you know that's the most important part of the mech!"

I smiled and grimaced. Mechnerds are my favorite kind of mechheads, hands down. But I had to admit it was possible he was right. If you can't coordinate and communicate with others, you're ineffective on the battlefield.

I entered the cockpit from the base of the mech's hunched shoulder, it was actually a side-mount. I had learned that in the academy but I had never boarded an Awesome in the flesh and it caught me a little by surprise, but it was a welcome one. It was ajar and I let myself through the hatch, small, armored, double-thick and decided against sealing it behind me. Cadence would soon be up.

My tactical vest had been ruined by the fire, but I had one of my pistols and a spare clip with me yet. The new boots were too tight and I took them off, which I would regret if forced to eject again, but I did it anyways. The pants were alright, but the shirt was tight and I took it off as well, reattaching the holster for my pistol onto my bare chest. Well, bare if you didn't count the three large bandages on it where my skin was pink, red, or black underneath. My medipack was putting a steady stream of painkiller into my bloodstream at this point, and I wondered if it was getting low yet.

For not the last time that day, I cursed the names of Kellie Orion and Sarasvati Rinaldi and vowed to stop their breath if I could. Preferrably after I had them begging for mercy and humiliated.

"Huntress, this is Vance. I'm bringing the Awesome online now. It will be at least fifteen minutes until I can move out. What is our situation?"

"They've got control of the firebase, but the cannon is defunct, probably has been for some time. I informed Captain Siampa of the situation and she wants to conference with you, myself, and Kith about our next move."

"Excellent. That was my next item on the agenda. Contact me as soon as you have a link. I'm going to get adjusted to this monster."

Cadence appeared at the cockpit hatch then and unslung the backpack he had with him, producing the neurohelmet. I felt the adrenaline in my veins now. This snake had a new skin, and it was time to get comfortable in it. This snake also had the taste of blood on its fangs, and the scent of its prey. I was eager, or maybe the right word was hungry.

One more shred of humanity stripped from me this day. Could a mercenary afford sentiments like love and devotion? Could a snake? Nobility and fair play, the great ideals of civilization were not something I could have the luxury of any longer. I had nearly been killed in the name of them today, and I was the last of my line. Never again.

I brought the fusion reactor online, only barely listening to Cadence inform me of the startup procedure and the mech's security settings. Then he left and I sealed the hatch. This was my mech now, I'd change them all, and I'd also kill them all. All who opposed me… If I couldn't vaporize Sara with the PPCs I'd smash her mech with my armored fist, the useless and unarmed left stub where a missile launcher once made its home. If not that, I'd run her down and trample her with eighty tons of steel. An eighty ton snake was I. _Unukalhai… unukalhai… unukalhai…you are _my_ snake. _

Coiled and ready. The fusion core was alive and hot. I finished my water, set it aside. I was alive and hot. I donned the helmet and took the controls. Time for battle, time for death, time for revenge.

_Are you ready Unukalhai? I am Cor Serpens, and now you obey me and only me. We strike fast and without warning. From the darkness. The darkness there and nothing more. _

Unukalhai obeyed, and we rode forth into the bright dawn of a war-torn planet.


	13. Kings in Opposition

­**CHAPTER 11 – "Kings in Opposition": Eaton: April, 3061 **

"Impossible."

Kith's projected visage on my HUD was incredulous, shocked, and did not contain his rage at all. He and Alvaria sat in the SitRep lounge and were conferenced in with me and Huntress.

"Sara and Kellie would not have betrayed the Colonel. We have undertaken dozens of missions together. There was never any disloyalty. It is simply impossible."

Kith could have been Zanshin's brother. They thought alike, acted alike, were similarly huge and menacing, and similarly deadly. I took a nice long drag on my cigarette, one of dozens I had confiscated from a captured technician in the firebase, before chuckling sardonically and replying.

"Well they have. They killed him in cold blood. This after orchestrating Terrance's death and they took a stab at me too, and I'm sure they would have gone for more if they could have."

"That makes no sense at all."

"Cadence intercepted a transmission just before the enemy dropship moved. The communication was heavily encrypted but he sliced it. He informed me that someone in our unit was transmitting to the enemy, something about hitting 'the target' and going on with the plan. There must have been a very large bounty on his head, and I'm guessing a bounty on the rest of us as well."

"Why didn't you inform us of this communication?" demanded Alvaria.

"No time. Plus it could have been any one of you. We couldn't afford to show our hand."

"Well you almost paid with your life for your secrecy Vance."

"No, I almost paid with my life for my trust. I trusted Sara without knowing her. Trust is what killed the Colonel, he trusted someone close to him that he didn't really know. You all did. You're equally responsible." I hit the cigarette again while Kith pounded his fist on the table.

"You're wrong!"

"Probably," I replied, "but this isn't getting us anywhere. We don't have a commander and we don't have objectives at this point. The point of this conference is to decide on both so we don't end up dead like our comrades."

Captain Alvaria Siampa put one hand on Kith's shoulder and spoke calmer than I expected.

"As to command, the Grenadiers belong to the estate of the Colonel now, but officially its my job to get the unit back to Hot Springs, as intact as possible, while fulfilling any mission objectives and contracts that are possible. Either we'll get a new commander then or the unit will disband."

"The real problem is that we're now down to five mechs, two fighters, and one dropship against six or more mechs and a dropship. Our numerical superiority is gone, our element of surprise is gone, and our enemy is up to god-knows-what after decapitating our command structure."

She had a good point. Any advantage we originally had was gone now. Any mechs we fought now would be veterans in state of the art machines, not rebel scum in outclassed trash with no organization or combat experience.

"Well, if we keep control of the firebase, that's a hefty chunk of change for us. I say we get the infantry in the structure, fix the artillery emplacements, put our recon team on our new hovercraft we've liberated and establish a roving patrol. Any enemy mech spotted by Kurato and his men will have to endure bombardment from the cannon before assaulting the structure."

"But we took control of it easily enough Leftenant, what's to stop them?"

Huntress didn't sound upset. I wasn't convinced she could get upset. She was as professional as they came, and of all of us, probably had the best chance of making it to retirement.

"For one thing, we're ready. Our troops will staff the damn turrets so they can't walk in for free. If the scouts spot them far enough off, we pummel them with artillery and follow it up with some air support. We have enough scouts to keep those hovercraft in the field indefinitely. Lets put our personnel to use. Get Johann on the cannon and get it operational, scouts to spot and fighters to strafe."

"I agree with you on this," said Kith, "Alicia and I will ensure the doom of any assault, even if hovercraft get driven off, I can spot for the cannon. If they try to bring the dropship, I shoot it down. I've shot down Unions before and know where to hit them." Kith was half growling his words, his eyes blazing with hate.

Huntress, ever the taskmaster, cocked her head to one side, thoughtfully running one hand through her hair, catching some stray strands and tucking them into the pony tail in back as she did.

"So we can hold the base. That's three mil and salvage. What's the next move?"

We were quiet for a bit. All thinking, calculating, crunching the numbers and weighing the odds. Alvaria broke the silence.

"It depends on what the enemy is doing. They've neutralized our direct attack capability, which was probably what their contract was for anyways. Someone in the rebel movement must be paying them to stay on planet, or they'd have left by now. Correct?" She raised one eyebrow and waited.

We all nodded slowly. That followed.

"We've broken the mech force of the rebellion, and fulfilled our two defense contracts, and we've now accounted for every known rebel mech on planet, minus the mercenaries, thus fulfilling our assault contract. If we hold the firebase we fulfill that contract as well. The only open contracts are protection and escort of the family here on the dropship, and the hit on the enemy mercs. As long as we leave the planet with the royals alive we get paid for that too. If we kill the mercs we get more pay, but the risk is too high at this point, and with the defections and death of the Colonel, we can legally back out of that hit without any difficulties."

_But I want them all dead, my dear._

"I posit that our highest priority be to retain our current contracts, the protection of the royals and the firebase. We don't have to pay four mechwarriors now, so costs are down and our total pay on-planet is well over twenty million now, plus the salvage at the base. Vance, we can probably work something out where you keep the Awesome as replacement for Eltanin but forfeit other pay."

I started violently, which hurt, pain rippling up my right side along with the rage. _Over my dead body, Captain!_ But before I could respond, she cut me off.

"Don't even start with me Leftenant. You'll come out way ahead and you know it, you'll be lucky if I can talk the accountants into letting you keep the mech at all. Even if you get a small IOU, the net result will be heavily in your favor so just drop it. And that's _after_ we review Eltanin's black box battle log for a clear picture of what happened and determine that you acted honorably and deserve a salvaged mech."

My rage burned white hot now, but I took another drag and smiled a wolf's grin at the monitor as if to say _'Try to take it from me'._ This mech was mine now. _Mine all mine_.

"So if we meet those objectives, we'll be up in supplies, after salvage anyways, positive twenty mil but down a commander and his mech, which belonged to the unit. We can hire new mechwarriors with our surplus cash, they'll just have to bring their own mechs."

"I agree," said Huntress "except technically Sara stole an Uziel that belonged to the Grenadiers as salvage on our defense contract. That mech belongs to us, and I doubt she's going to leave it for us somewhere. Recovering it would be very dangerous, to say the least. But at a minimum, we need to protect our two open contracts by holding the firebase and keeping the dropship hidden until its time to leave planet for good. Past that, we need to know what their plan is. We know they have at least one more contract, but the question is, what?"

I broke in then, extinguishing my cigarette and reaching for my water bottle.

"They've fulfilled their assassination contract on the Colonel, and can collect bounties on two Grenadiers, me and Terrance, as they think I'm dead, and they've led the resistance, probably helped themselves to all kinds of salvage off of those clowns. Its hard to know what they are contracted for though when we don't know who's paying them. As far as we know, the original employer is dead!"

Kith leaned back in his chair, cradling the base of his skull between interlaced fingers.

"Whoever it is now must also die." He stated it simply and with no emotion. Apparently his rage had subsided at least that much.

"Kith, we won't get paid for killing whoever it is," retorted Huntress.

"Honor is its own reward."

"Not in this line of work."

I chuckled and tipped an invisible hat to Ms. Paula Jalastar. It was hard to dislike Huntress when she was so blunt and accurate. _What a delicious contradiction. A doctor performing surgery with a steel mallet, that's our Huntress. _

"Huntress is right. Sure, I want them dead and I want that tin can of an Uziel, but its just bad business. A pitched battle with heavies over one patchwork salvaged inner sphere medium mech? Lets not throw good mechs after bad here. We've got two-hundred and fifty tons of heavy metal against Sara, Kellie, and their Marauder buddy plus a Viper, an Atlas, a Ryoken, and that damnable Warhammer. Those are the ones we know about, but there could be others. That's five hundred tons of advanced machinery, some of it clan tech, and these guys aren't pushovers."

I finished my water bottle, wished for some whiskey, but instead cracked open the pasty protein shake Cadence had given me. Healthy though it may be, it still looked like ground chalk mixed with curdled milk.

"What about the mechs in the capital and the mixed armor lances?" asked Huntress.

"What reason have they to help us? Its our contract to geek the mercs. They're perfectly safe holed up in their defensive positions. Here's another question that needs answering… why didn't Sara, Kellie and the Marauder turn on the rest of you after they thought they had killed me? They had enough firepower. For that matter, why did they leave?" I was thinking out loud now. It didn't make sense.

"They _were_ outnumbered, and they had killed the Colonel, why risk losses?"

"Outnumbered maybe, but not outgunned. That Marauder could have taken out the rest of Bravo on its own, but by the time they had killed the Colonel and I rounded the corner, the Marauder was already out the South gate. I remember seeing it now."

My mind was now kicked into high gear. Something didn't add up. It would have cost a lot to buy Sara and Kellie's betrayal. Maybe as costly as attacking us head on. So they succeed in keeping us penned in at great monetary cost, reducing our numbers and inflating their own, but who is paying? Baron Fortunada was dead. I shot him myself. Why pay the mechbitches to defect when it is better to just leave the planet with your team intact after your employer dies? No more rebel meatshield either. Something was definitely rotten in the state of Denmark.

"You got a hunch Vance?" asked Alvaria, raising one eyebrow as she asked.

"Not yet. But it all adds up to something. That we know of, they have no reason to stay on planet. They move their dropship for seemingly no reason. They kill me and then run, even though the Colonel is already dead and they neglect to kill any of you, like they are in one hell of a hurry, while ceding a strong defensive position to us. Meanwhile we are in no position to attack them and are in fact vulnerable but they've pulled back. Its like they want us to stay put."

"Yes Vance," agreed Huntress "except, then they piss us off astronomically by killing our leader in an act of betrayal, then you, or try to anyways, and they steal a mech from us in the process. The move of the dropship and all this is more likely a trap to lure us to attack them at a place of their choosing when they're ready for us. When we didn't take the bait right away, they gave us a second reason to do so, betting our revenge motive. Kith is well known for that." Kith smiled wickedly as Paula continued. "We can't exactly leave this base without them knowing it, if they've got watchers."

_True. _I mulled it over and had to admit that it was possible. The truth was probably something in the middle, but something unexpected. Later I would turn out to be right. My hunches usually were. Alvaria straightened her uniform and concluded the conversation.

"Alright, enough talk. This is all useful speculation but we don't have enough data to go on. Paula, I want you to secure that firebase and be prepared to repel a full-scale assault, but lets defend it better than they did. Vance, help her out. Your job is to make sure that it costs them four or five mechs to even get inside. Get used to that Awesome because with it you can pick them off as they approach. I'll radio Kurato his orders, and Johann his. We'll get the cannon online and put scouts out in the field. I'll get Kurato on top of recon and try to find out what the hell is going on here. Meanwhile, I'll make sure we don't lose the family escort contract, you two make sure we don't lose the firebase. For now, that's the best we can do. Kith, I'm keeping you grounded so our position remains a mystery. Any questions, okay good."

I had several of course, but she didn't give us time to say anything before she disconnected.

"Alright, Huntress, I'll establish a roving patrol so I can get used to this tub. I'll be doing some gunnery so tell the infantry not to freak out."

"Copy that Eltanin. I want you back at 0900. I'll give Bravo a rotating sleep shift. The sooner you get back the better."

I worked the controls and coaxed Unukalhai to top speed, some 62 kilometers per hour. Compared to Eltanin, it was a beast. Wide, slow, and heavy. Built like an oak tree, solidly rooted to the ground. There would be no knocking this behemoth over. _Best of luck to you on this one Sara…_

I passed through the South gate and into the bright desert morning. It was quite pleasant actually, and the Awesome was running very cool. I had never driven a mech with such a tremendous heat dissipation capacity before. Eltanin hadn't needed much, and only ran hot when you really kept the PPC going. This mech had nearly twice the ventilation. The cockpit was as cool as a spring morning, crisp and fresh. Not fresh actually, maybe sterile was a better word.

I spotted a boulder about 400 meters out and set course to close the distance. I got to 300 meters and then brought my new mech to a stop. The targeting system would take some getting used to, but luckily I wasn't ammunition dependent. I lined up the shot and depressed the trigger.

Somewhere deep within the mech, three machines of frightening complexity were ordered to accelerate streams of charged particles to near the speed of light and disgorge them from heat resistant barrels. The particle beams were dimmer than usual in the bright morning sunlight, but still left burning afterimages on my retinas.

The two torso beams converged perfectly and completely vaporized the rock while the right arm beam crossed past to the left of the boulder. _Miscalibrated_

I swung Unukalhai forty degrees east to another target at 200 meters and tried again, this time the beam passed very close to the left side of the target. I opened the targeting system's command interface and recalibrated the reticle for the right arm PPC several degrees to the right.

After unleashing the man-made lightning on hapless boulders of varying ranges for the better part of an hour, I was very confident in my ability to bring all three blasts to bear simultaneously, and at any range. And through it all, the heat gauge barely got off the zero mark, staying in the green the whole time.

_Coiled and ready, yes we are. _

It was only 0830, so I gave the radar a sweep, then, seeing nothing, popped the cockpit seal and stepped into the mech's shoulder cleft. The air was fresh and very dry. I enjoyed the rest of my ration while I scanned the desert for signs of life and the enemy. When my ration was gone, I turned and urinated off the back of the mech, with the wind, and then re-entered the cockpit.

I was back in time to see the three hovercraft shoot out the South gate and split up, racing across the dunes and rock. One gunned straight for me, then veered off to the South while the others split and ran opposite directions along the South wall, then both broke partly north after clearing the corner. I grinned and waved to the inbound hot-rodder, pantomiming lining up a shot on him, before focusing my attention back on the firebase.

Bringing my mech into the bay, I reset the security measures and locked it down before dismounting. Solaria met me at the entrance to the mech bay.

"How's she running, sir?"

"A mech that big only lumbers."

She grinned and looked me up and down, grimacing slightly.

"How are you running?"

"Stiff, sore, and more than a little tired. These bandages itch like mad and I feel like a woman with no body hair. How about you?"

She grinned wider at my hair comment and turned to leave the mechbay.

"You men are so weak. Try waxing sometime and then get back to me."

Now it was my turn to grin as I set off behind her and followed her to the control tower where the infantry had set up a temporary barracks. I couldn't keep up, but that was all right. I was walking and I had a new mech already. _This cat lands on his feet baby. _

Zanshin's hatchetman at the North gate clanked his axes together before saluting with the larger one. I waved back and entered the tower. It was the last rest I got on the cursed planet of Eaton.


End file.
